TENKASI: Fifty-six-year-old Thirumaran has no memory of his father. He’d heard that his dad K Ramasundaram alias Poonguntran taught at a school in Malaysia and died there just six months after he was born. Armed with information from a Google search, P Thirumaran, now an activist in Venkadampatti village of Tirunelveli district, recently set out on a quest to find his father’s grave.
Not only did he succeed, but he also got to learn about his father from the late man’s students. “My father was 37 when he died of an illness in 1967. My mother Radhabhai buried him and brought me back to India. She died 35 years ago,” Thirumaran tells TNIE, adding that he’d always wanted to find where his dad was buried.
“I knew he worked at a school called Kerling Thotta Thesiya Vakai Tamil Palli in Malaysia’s Kerling. Through Google, I found that the school building is dilapidated and the school had been moved to another location. I got the headmaster Kumar Chidambaram’s email address and told him I wanted to find my father’s grave,” Thirumaran recalls.
‘Found my dad’s grave in the bushes in Malaysia’
Chidambaram then got in touch with Ramasundaram’s old students Mohana Rao and Nagappan, both of whom are in their eighties. The duo then located their teacher’s grave in Kerling and informed Thirumaran.
“I flew to Malaysia on November 8, and saw my father’s grave in the bushes. Though it was worn out, the gravestone had an image of my father, as well as his name, and birth and death dates. I offered prayers at the grave several times before returning to India on November 16,” Thirumaran says, adding that he also learnt a lot about his father.
“His student Nagappan said my dad played a pivotal role in shaping him. Another student Kamalam said she fainted when my dad beat her for not paying attention in class! But she added that my dad laid her on his lap and helped her recover. My father gifted a bicycle to one Perumal to help him go to college. Perumal met me twice in Malaysia,” he smiles.
Being an orphan himself, Thirumaran runs an orphanage. “I’ve helped conduct weddings for about 60 orphans, and got jobs for more than 100. Besides, I’ve conducted 3,009 blood donation camps. Having lost my parents, I know how hard it is to be an orphan,” he explains.