One little boy was brought to our attention in our Panthal that he had lost his mum in the din of things. Gokulan as he told us, was in Std four, but still little. He looked bewildered when I first set eyes on him, but soon after we had contacted his father using the handphone number Gokulan gave us, he settled down with a little more confidence, to wait for his father to come and pick him up. His father showed up about an hour later and he told us how grateful he was. My response to him was that we do not need to be thanked , what we were doing on the larger plane as Hindraf made it our duty to take care of every little aspect of the future we were all struggling for – his son included. Of course when Gokuklan left with his father, I could see expression of innocent gratitude in his eyes. These little things sometimes seem to evoke within me great passions and as I get older my emotions often overtake me.
Then there was Mariappen whom I have talked about in my other earlier writing, a whole family. Mariappen, his wife, and three sons, denied of their first and fundamental right as citizens of this country, showed up at the Panthal. They were all so surprised to see me there as much as I was surprised to see Mariappen show so much responsibility by bringing his whole family for Thaipusam to Penang from Kulim. He smelled of stale alcohol and I looked suspiciously at him as I do everytime I find him in a similar state. But he vehemently denied and he said it was last night’s. I told him, if he gave up his drinking and at the next Thaipusam he carried a Kavadi I would dance for his Kavadi, something I have never done in my entire life. You should have seen the look on his face and on his wife’s eyes when I said that. Again it is these little things like this that makes my life so meaningful.
There were so many little eventful things that happened today. I am so happy today. A small team of highly committed Hindraf team in Penang - put together such a wonderful exhibition for the people, to tell them that Hindraf was well and kicking and we were moving on to become the Human Rights Party of Malaysia, to lead them on.
They did such a wonderful job with a minimum of resources. They get nothing back personally from any of this, they only get many hours of additional work, maybe tension with their spouses – in one case Annathurai even had his wife and little daughter involved in the work of inviting the people on the streets to visit the exhibition that the others in the team had prepared for them. All of this gives me an exhilarating feeling, even though the organizing team was small, they were highly effective and so committed.
Every little thing we do has to do with people, if we believe in people, we will all be surprised at what little people can do. Hindraf stands for the little people, and watch out what we little people will do for this country. We just had one political Tsunami, watch out for the next.
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