Disclaimer: The following is based on the horrific true events.
14 February, 2002:
Valentine’s Day, It was also the slated day for the release of versatile film maker Mani Rathnam’s film “Kannathil Muthamittal”. His earlier film “Alaipayuthe” was received well both critically and in the box office. My favorite romantic movie. Title “Kannathil Muthamittal” and the thoughts of “Alaipayuthe” drove me to the presumption of more romance from Mani this time. With scenes of alaipayuthe running through my mind, I longed for the film to open. But against my expectation, film featured the story of orphaned girl Amudha, born in the Raameshwaram rehab center. Story was carved so well to mark the importance of adoption alongside the blood shed fight of rebels for their rights. “Kannathil Muthamittal” was my first glimpse into the tough lives of Sri Lankan Tamils.
23 July, 2004:
The day was the 21st anniversary of the Black July Pogrom. Bad day, Ill ideology, Ignorance of value of life, individual’s belief and political motivation. The perfect blend of all this created Black July and the rest was history. Since independence, Sri Lanka had witnessed many clashes between Sinhalese speaking and Tamil speaking people. But Black July was generally seen as the actual, intense, serious start of the Sri Lankan civil war. It took place in the year 1983, July 23rd. To retaliate the killing of 15 soldiers by the LTTE, group of Sinhalese mob unveiled the attack on the northern parts of the country, where majority of Tamils lived. The incident demised the lives of 400 to 3000 people along with smash up of government and private properties. The perfect square of revenge was drawn. Since then, July 23rd of every year has been marked as the Remembrance Day. Chennai based Tamil Daily “Dhinamalar” on the same day carried an article written by free lance writer. The article had some terrible historical facts, assumed numeric data and words of people from the rehab center. Though the main theme of the article was Black July Incident, it rendered to me more insight into whole issue of the island nation.
26 September, 2008:Valentine’s Day, It was also the slated day for the release of versatile film maker Mani Rathnam’s film “Kannathil Muthamittal”. His earlier film “Alaipayuthe” was received well both critically and in the box office. My favorite romantic movie. Title “Kannathil Muthamittal” and the thoughts of “Alaipayuthe” drove me to the presumption of more romance from Mani this time. With scenes of alaipayuthe running through my mind, I longed for the film to open. But against my expectation, film featured the story of orphaned girl Amudha, born in the Raameshwaram rehab center. Story was carved so well to mark the importance of adoption alongside the blood shed fight of rebels for their rights. “Kannathil Muthamittal” was my first glimpse into the tough lives of Sri Lankan Tamils.
23 July, 2004:
The day was the 21st anniversary of the Black July Pogrom. Bad day, Ill ideology, Ignorance of value of life, individual’s belief and political motivation. The perfect blend of all this created Black July and the rest was history. Since independence, Sri Lanka had witnessed many clashes between Sinhalese speaking and Tamil speaking people. But Black July was generally seen as the actual, intense, serious start of the Sri Lankan civil war. It took place in the year 1983, July 23rd. To retaliate the killing of 15 soldiers by the LTTE, group of Sinhalese mob unveiled the attack on the northern parts of the country, where majority of Tamils lived. The incident demised the lives of 400 to 3000 people along with smash up of government and private properties. The perfect square of revenge was drawn. Since then, July 23rd of every year has been marked as the Remembrance Day. Chennai based Tamil Daily “Dhinamalar” on the same day carried an article written by free lance writer. The article had some terrible historical facts, assumed numeric data and words of people from the rehab center. Though the main theme of the article was Black July Incident, it rendered to me more insight into whole issue of the island nation.
The day was the 21st death anniversary of Lt. Col. Thileepan. Love for soil, Determination, Feeling of insecurity and Will to die for cause, all this merged together can transform a person into a martyr. Born as Rasaiah Parthiban, Thileepan joined LTTE prior to Black July. Thileepan rose to the position of Lieutenant Col within a short span of service in LTTE. He was known for his intelligence, determination and patriotism. Exactly 21 years and 11 days earlier he staged hunger strike in Jaffna district; posing his demands to IPKF. Demands focused on prevention of Tamils from the clutches of (atrocities of) authorities. His hunger strike lasted for next 11 days; he was not able to survive any longer. 26 September, 1987 he passed away. Expiration of person on the hunger strike was beyond belief to me. The determination of Thileepan moved me so much. Having read books, having visited peoples, having travelled places, I consolidated the hardships of Tamils in my first book. I requested the publishers to release the book on this date. I attributed the book as my salutation to the determination of Lt. Col. Thileepan. Though I considered it as my best accomplishment, it did not move people to agitation. I wished my writing to create an agitation like it did in Germany, Russia and few other nations’ decades back. Words of leaders like Hitler, Karl Marx were capable to create the agitation against governments. It toppled the governments there, but my words lacked the venom to create the same. Intervention of Indian government to stop war was the expected outcome, but it did not happen.
29 January, 2009:
War intensified in the regions where Tamils were living. Sri Lankan army progressed swiftly to get hold of the major LTTE basements. War intensified like it would come to an end only after zeroing out the entire population of Tamils. Hatred of self grew daily which I could attribute to being the reason for not stopping the sufferings of my people. I acknowledge the fact that there is a large population of Tamils from Sri Lanka expected the miracle to happen. Those people considered us as their saviors; they blindly believed Indian Tamils will save them.
I am Muthu Kumar K and this is going to be the last day of my life. I consider killing myself for the cause of my people as the purpose of birth. Lt. Col. Thileepan killed himself at the age of 26 with the hope of freedom for their people. The griefs of his hope going in vein alone drive me to suicide. But the grief that I now have is very much more. The grief which I possess now is much more as I could see the hopes of millions of people going in vein. Killing myself to the cause of my people could possibly relieve me out of my grief. This is how the whole story should end. I here wrap up my death statement.
War intensified in the regions where Tamils were living. Sri Lankan army progressed swiftly to get hold of the major LTTE basements. War intensified like it would come to an end only after zeroing out the entire population of Tamils. Hatred of self grew daily which I could attribute to being the reason for not stopping the sufferings of my people. I acknowledge the fact that there is a large population of Tamils from Sri Lanka expected the miracle to happen. Those people considered us as their saviors; they blindly believed Indian Tamils will save them.
I am Muthu Kumar K and this is going to be the last day of my life. I consider killing myself for the cause of my people as the purpose of birth. Lt. Col. Thileepan killed himself at the age of 26 with the hope of freedom for their people. The griefs of his hope going in vein alone drive me to suicide. But the grief that I now have is very much more. The grief which I possess now is much more as I could see the hopes of millions of people going in vein. Killing myself to the cause of my people could possibly relieve me out of my grief. This is how the whole story should end. I here wrap up my death statement.
Note: Wikipedia is the major source of the content of this blog.
