Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email Having confirmed that the International Ponggal Festival was on 15th, I decided to attend it today. First time to Menara KL as well, so took the chance to go up the tower. More on that later.
I reached the tower at 9.45am , was at the observatory till 10.30am. It was blazing hot. By the way, parking is RM2.65 per hour, in case you wonder. The preparation for the festival was going on. The organisers were moving about – registering participants, arranging the pots and so on.
The function was organised by Putera MIC, under Mr Kamalanathan.
The crowd began to trickle in around 10.45am, mostly students (including foreigners) from local universities like UM and UNISEL. There were few families, and few tourists as well. I estimated that there were between 80 to 100 pots available, but about a quarter of them were not taken. The organizers asked those that had 4 people in a team to break up into two-per-team. Maybe being a weekday caused less participation.
The crowd was enthusiastic – most started the fire and poured the milk, until the organizer had to ask them to wait for the VIP. VIP was none other than MIC Chief Dato Seri Samy Vellu. He came in at around 11.15am .
There was a welcoming dance – a classical one – performed by malay dancers (as highlighted by the MC), followed by speech from Mr Kamalanathan.
This was followed by another dance. I can’t remember if Samy Vellu gave a speech, since I was busy snapping photos. I only heard Samy Vellu being invited to launch the festival by pouring milk in the pot – the first step in making “ponggal”.
Samy Vellu then went around and talked to the participants. The participants were quite jovial and some posed for photographs. The walkabout took around 15 minutes.
The participants were busy tending to their pots, hoping to be the first to have the milk boil and overspill. There were cries of “Ponggalo Ponggal” denoting that participants managed to get it right. The event went on till about 12pm, at which I left the venue.
Overall, it was good program, though it could have started a bit early to avoid the afternoon sun. I was expecting a larger crowd, so a bit surprised at the crowd. It also reminded me of the ponggal festival we used to organize while in university those days. Sigh….those were the days!
Photos are at Picasa.
MP: The ponggal festival has been organised at KL Tower since 2006.
First of all i would like to wish Happy Pongal to all Tamil Indians. Secondly its
quiet odd to see the celebration carried in UMNO strong base….hmmmm
looks like some political agenda to me. Is this the first time in 50 years???
Anyway its looks like “Today Malaysia is Truly Asia” we should make use all the
opertunity which taking place and vote wisely.
MP: PM didn’t come. i think his official diary stated ponggal function is on saturday the 19th.
nice sir…sorry i couldnt make it 🙁
it looooks meriah from the pics …paklah tak datang ke?
I agree with Rose, definetely Political Agenda! Best part, in Menara KL! Cannot Be and No way this would have happened, but then, these only happens when the pigs and cows flies over the moon! So make use off this while its available!
snoop,
the event is held as a tourist attraction primarily, that’s why KL Tower was chosen. in the beginning the People”s Ponggal was done in Rawang.
the local participants are mainly imported from local universities/colleges.
for the last few years, it has been done at KL Tower.
the way i see it, it is making use of multicultural diversity to attract more tourists, and at the same time highlight the indian community culture.
I’m not sure by what you mean “So make use off this while its available!”. can explain?
Hi, yes..agreed with Poobalan. Sometimes, we will overwork our thoughts when we shouldn’t.
We’ll have to answer correctly to the correct question, answer wrongly for the wrong question but should not set to answer wrongly regardless of the question.
Nothing seems wrong with Festival organized at KL Tower…