Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email As mentioned in Part 0, we reached the Sri Bala Subramaniar Swamy temple at about 6.45am. We walked along the road towards the temple, and to my surprise, there was no crowd. As you can see in the photos, the roads were near empty.
In the temple compound itself, there were about 50 people, while Hindraf had set up an area where the supporters are fasting as support to the 5 ISA detainees. There were about 20 – 30 people at the area.
I went to shave my head, and was charged RM15. It was done at a leisurely pace since there was no crowd. After that, we joined the prayers. The crowd began to trickle in, with paal kudam carriers coming in small groups. I took some photos at the temple and took part in the prayers till 8.30am.
Then, we went to the HINDRAF booth where we saw devotees lining up to sign the signature campaign to free the detainees and fulfill the 19-point memorandum. By this time, there were about 200 people in the temple itself and more were coming in.
We saw quite a number of people wearing the orange colored “Makkal Sakthi Thondargal” sold by Hindu Seva Sangam (HSS). HSS which has set up its much famed vegetarian nasi lemak stall just outside the temple compound, had volunteers busy preparing ingredients and cooking. We took this chance to taste their nasi lemak.
On a hunch, I decided to call an online friend who is a volunteer in HSS to ask the current situation for Thaipusam. To my pleasant surprise, he was at Port Klang, and we met face to face for the first time. Vishnu then explained that the night before was really packed and for today the crowd will be coming after 9am. This fact is collaborated with evidence such as the garbage left by the night crowd – there were polystyrene cups, and the stalls which were set up earlier. He said that Batu Caves is having very little crowd as informed by his friend over there. He also said that the t-shirts were sold at RM10 each. There were also shawls for sale at RM5 each. We bought two t-shirt. We left the temple at 9am. Along the way out, we saw many people wearing the orange “Makkal Shakthi” t-shirt or shawl, a telling sign that people support the new wave of revolution brought by HINDRAF.
Later, I would receive an SMS from Vishnu at 11.30am saying that crowd was unbelievable at Port Klang.
As i was about to leave Port Klang, I received a call from my buddy in JB, Dhana saying that SMS he got mentioned there was a small fight at Batu Caves. I rushed to Batu Caves. Continued at Part 2.
