Millions pray for an atheist

CHENNAI: In her haste to meet her ‘friend’, all 85-year-old Rathinammal carried with her on her seven-hour train journey from Nagapattinam was a crumpled paper with his address scribbled on it. It didn’t matter to her that this would be her first trip to Chennai and she had no one to guide her. “I didn’t want to believe what I heard, I wanted to see,” said the octogenarian.
The man she identified as her friend is ailing DMK chief M Karunanidhi. Rathinammal, who hails from Thirukkuvalai village in Nagapattinam – Karunanidhi’s birthplace – said she had met the leader only once but followed his mercurial rise through the party ranks closely. “I was awed by his speeches. They connected me to my roots and made me proud of who I am,” said Rathinammal, sitting outside his Gopalapuram residence. It was on television, she first heard that his condition had deteriorated. “Staying at home while he ails would be the greatest disrespect I show to the most profound orator I know, so I came,” she said, adding that she would return home only after his condition improves.



Party cadres are waiting around 12 am in Chennai on Friday, infront of the residence of DMK president M Karunanidhi


On Friday morning, the crowd outside M Karunanidhi’s house, located in a narrow lane, was small compared to the throng that usually arrives following news of an ailing leader. Buses and vans that bring these people were conspicuous by their absence. All of them had come of their own volition. Ezhilan G, a 51-year-old paraplegic, was among them. Since the early 90’s, not a single Pongal has gone by when Ezhilan failed to keep his date with Karunanidhi. “Every time I meet him, he gives me a note as a token of his affection. I have saved all of them,” said Ezhilan, sitting on his retrofitted scooter. He took off from his house the minute he heard the former chief minister was ill. “But I didn’t come here to hear bad news. I’ve been here since last night with the hope of witnessing him battling and winning,” said Ezhilan one of the party’s headquarter-level stage speaker. Just then, the DMK patriarch’s son, M K Stalin, stepped out of the house creating a flutter. “There is improvement in the health condition of Kalaignar. The infection has come down a lot,” said a visibly tired Stalin. “This is what I came here for,” whispered Ezhilan as the crowd around him cheered. While Ezhilan held hope, there were anxious whispers of ‘what if and what next’.

Rathinammal idolised Karunanidhi as an orator, Ezhilan respected him as a benefactor. For 29-year-old Zerine from Villivakkam, who came cradling her 10-month-old infant, the leader had inspired three generations in her family. “So much so that he had become one of us,” said Zerine, whose family has been DMK loyalists since it was founded by C N Annadurai in 1949.

Dravidian historian ‘Sangoli’ K Thirunavukarasu is not surprised that Karunanidhi has touched people’s lives in different ways. “He is a multi-faceted personality. He is loved by his party workers for his Dravidian ideology and charisma. Beyond politics, he is loved for his literary works, cinemas and oratory skill. It is natural that people are converging to exhibit their love for him,” he said.