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Happy Pongal! “Thai piranthal vazhi pirakkum!”

Today is the New Year of Tamil calendar. It is the first day of the month of Thai, and the full moon day of this month is called Thaipusam.

I attended the ceremony of Pongal celebration in Tasek, near Ipoh. The function was organized by our KeADILan activist Arjunan. Perak KeADILan state chief Utz Zul also joined to greet our Tamil friends a good new year.

The event started at about 20:00hr in front of a shrine or koil near a housing apartment. It was attended by lots of joyful children with their parents. The women prepared the traditional pongal ritual.

First they set up a bone fire with a pot. I was invited to start the fire and poured milk into the pot. When the milk began to boil, rice was added. Later they also added brown sugar, raisin and other sweeteners.

While the women were busy boiling pongal, Arjunan and his wife accompanied me to join the pooja in the little shrine. The samy performed a blessing ceremony on me.

I asked Arjunan what deity was worshiped in the shrine. He said “Amman“.

Amman simply means “mother”, it can be referred to any mother goddess: Durga, Kali, Shakti, Parvathi… Among Tamil people, the most popular female deity is usually Mariyamman.

When the milk in the pot boiled and overspilled, all the kids cheered: “Ponggalo, ponggal” (overspilled, overspilled!). The ritual was hence completed.

Before we dispersed, Utz Zul and I were invited a give a short speech. Utz Zul greeted the residents and urged them to extend the new year spirit to fight for change. In my speech I said Indian had at least 200 years of struggle in Malaysia, and contributed enormously for economic growth and building of infrastructure. We all want our kids when grow up, they will suffered from anymore discrimination. We urged all residents to be courageous and determine a brighter future for the next generations.

After the pongal ceremony, at about 21:00hr, I had to rush to Gopeng for another ceramah.