BETA

This week I have been doing a lot of soul searching and wondered what I could possibly write that hasn’t been written about before and that will hopefully make an interesting read.

And so I turned to real life for inspiration, last week was my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary, which is equivalent to a quarter of a decade in matrimony. First I would like to pass them and whoever else has achieved this wonderful feat my sincere congratulations and wishes. What our parents have is something that us ‘youngsters’ may not be able to achieve. For we have grown up in a society that is worlds apart from how our parents were raised; and with values and morals that are both eastern and western.

It is common nowadays for people to fall in and out of love and go from one relationship to the other without thinking twice about what lies ahead or of their future plans. With each relationship the individual in question becomes both wiser and bitter– something that our parents never experienced. Whether they married through love or introduction from their families, the certainty is that they were probably both each other’s first partners. There is something alluring about the innocence of this sort of relationship and that is probably the reason that their marriages remain strong and they committed to one another.

This would be a rare thing to find amongst newly weds of the future, whereby both partners were each others first. Although to our parents this sounds unfamiliar and more often that not undesirable, it is something that they will have to get used to. However serious or meaningless a relationship what happened within that cannot be undone. This is a fact.

eetings Oru readers, let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year. It seems like it was only a short time ago that I wrote an article about the origins and significance of pongal and yet another year has passed and pongal is here once again. And what a year it has been! So much has changed for so many of us, we continue to grow in mind, body and soul and the world around is also changing rapidly. Good events and bad events precede one another and each day someone somewhere in the world is suffering.

What this past year has taught me is that nothing is forever, not ideas, not possessions nor life…nothing is forever. However there was one thing that I found that never ever perishes and that precious thing is ‘hope’. Pongal is a significant time of hope for as the great saying goes ‘thai pirandhal vazhi pirrakkum’ (literal translation = month is born, the way is born) meaning that when the month of Thai dawns there will be way of love, peace, harmony, prosperity, joyousness in everyone's life.

When so much is going on in the tumultuous world we live in, we often forget to hope and instead turn to other means to try to achieve what we want – and not all of them are right, but we do it anyway. What we should try and remember is that like each one of us there are millions more people hoping for things that are important to them and each of their hopes and dreams are just as precious as our own.

By hoping one can persevere and get through even the toughest times, to place your hope and faith in a higher allows each of us the strength to get through life. To hope ensures that you never ever give up and succeed in achieving what you want no matter how hard that may be; Pongal is a time when this hope is given praise to.

Life is about living. When I hear the word ‘life’ the first things that comes to my mind is being alive, studying, being able to do things you like and most of all being happy. So what happens when something in life goes wrong? For example someone dieing, how long does it take for us to recover from someone’s death and can all of us really recover from something as tragic as someone’s death.

Mr. Thamilchelvan’s death was very unexpected. Just as much as the Tsunami. All our homes would have gone through the stage where the T.V was tuned onto programs on Mr.Thamilchelvan and if we tried to change the channel we get a big lecture on how today’s teens don’t care about what’s happening to our home land and our fighters but in fact all we would have tried to do was to make a change so that the house is not full of crying and grumpiness. In a way you can avoid these unexpected events if you try really hard or can you? Will fate catch up? I know I’ve been bombarding you with questions but it is relevant; even though I’m saying ‘expect the unexpected’ I still don’t know the answer to these questions myself. But what ever happens how much control do we as humans have over these happenings.

Mr. Thamilchelvan’s sudden death did shake everyone as we all looked up to him after Mr. Anton Balasingham died and as the death trails continues it is hard to bare. But we must remember that for our fighters and representatives death follows them everywhere they go and sooner or later it comes. I know some of you reading this must hate me or even say “ how would you feel like if your loved one or family dies” and yes I agree, I would feel gutted. I might not have even been in a stable mind to write about it as I am doing now but on a personal note I do feel sorry, I too cried when I saw his coffin. I wish he finally finds freedom where he has gone now!!!

This week I was approached by the editorial team to write an article about higher studies in non-‘science’ related fields. Cliché I know, but apparently still a necessary topic to write about. In addition, It seems that this task always falls on me as I am apparently ‘the obvious candidate’ to discuss such a topic.

As you readers may or may not know, I have just completed my studies in political science (ignore the science bit) and now I am studying for my MSc in the same field. Growing up I harboured the typical ambition for a Tamil youth and that was to become a doctor. But as I became older and slightly wiser I decided that it was not the career for me. Apart from being a complete germ’o’phobe I did not like the idea of having to work long arduous hours where I was in regular contact with blood, guts and the sorts. Now I know what you are thinking, that there are other fields within medicine that do not involve such gore…but it was not the career for me. Much to the disappointment of my parents, I decided to continue my studies in the dreaded Arts field.

Eventually with a lot of gentle persuasion and a lot of good exam results later my parents were happy that I followed a path that made me happy and that I could excel in. It just so happens that both my degrees have the word science stuck on the end of them…that’s always a bonus in for us Tamils.

Once again I greet you all to yet another issue of ORU PAPER. I have come up with yet another article for all you teens. I noticed that my last article created a bit of a tsunami however I am not to blame for people’s immediate reaction. I was fully aware that it would happen as it was a problem or issue that everyone tries to pretend which doesn’t exist. However let’s leave that behind and start a fresh new article.

I was thinking about my future when I couldn’t stop wondering what I was personally good at. I know many teenagers have many different talents such as, singing, dancing, directing, creating music, and many are very talented in their field of studies. What came to my mind is that, what would happen if all of these talents get together back home in our home land Eelam and start their lives. Don’t you think it would be just amassing. I mean after the war, if we ever go back then we not only have to face problems such as poverty and homeless people but we would have to also face the facts that economically our land would be week. After all this fighting and loss, it will be a big struggle to get our country up and running again and that’s where our talented people come in.

What I believe and what I think everyone should believe is that nothing is impossible. This article isn’t to advise you to say don’t fall in love with this country don’t adapt. No this is to tell you to dream, dream and achieve your goals. Keep it up what ever you do. But also think about what you can personally do for your country when the time comes. In what way can you help back home no just with money but by using your brain, by using the skills you’ve learnt. That’s what this article is about. How many of you have actually though to yourselves, ‘after I finish studies or after I finish this course, I can help my country by doing this’.

continued from the previous issues [1]  [2]

I would like to firstly inform all my readers that I do not write articles so that people can just follow me without thinking about it first. You may ask why I say this, I will explain further in the article. About this topic, I have got a lot of response from both the public and family and friends; some being in favour and let’s say some being not so in favour of me writing this article. Yet I still continue to write only to justify my point, after all it is my duty to explain my self and to reply back to those of you who have asked me many questions and even went a step further into telling me to “write to encourage our youngsters to use their potential in these areas and be revolutionised and innovative”.

To tell you all the truth I actually read through my previous articles on this subject many times just to see if I did write anything that was unnecessary or irrelevant or even something inappropriate but to tell you the truth; I really do not feel as if I have committed a huge crime in writing about this.

Hello all, Thanks again for taking time to read this section of the paper. I have just realised that I have been writing for our paper for a year and a half. For those loyal readers who have read more or less most of these know that I have covered Tamil history, day to day problems, social problems and have cavorted with controversial issues (who can forget the debate about virginity that ensued!). I have even had the pleasure of people writing whole articles agreeing with what I have written about and sharing their personal experiences. More recently, I have been approached by email and social networking sites by various people from Austria to Australia and from Italy to India. It is always a pleasure to receive compliments and encouragement from people who enjoy what I write. I am also quietly overjoyed that so many people read what I write (not blowing my own trumpet…as maybe they have no choice other than to read it!).

continued from the previous issue

Since the article came out in the last issue I have had many concerned parents who have phoned me and asked who it was. They did not believe me when I stated that it was actually a girl from work and so they believe it might just be their daughters and not to mention my Tamil friends and colleagues. Then and there I fully realised how many people actually read ORU PAPER and most of all, they read the ‘TEENS PAPER’. It just comes to show that many parents and youngsters are still interested and keep reading. Many of the parents phoned in with panic but I assured them that it was not their girl. And after a while I started to regret even writing the article in the first place.

But then again, I have only written about what I have seen and thought about. It’s not just a subject that should be forgotten about. It’s something that many Tamils should come to terms with, as this kind of relationships are becoming very common as time goes by. We are no longer in the ice age or the mid ages. This is the innovatory age, when race and colour does nothing to a relationship. And when youngsters become more and more revolutionised in the western world we tend to think, act and behave just like a foreigner. And so for many Tamil girls and boys they see a black or white person just as equal as an Asian.

From my heading you would probably have guessed what this issue’s article is particularly about. As you know, I write my articles on my own experiences or of others around me. In this particular article, I have decided to write about the lives of many Tamil girls who are increasingly falling in love with other race boys (just not tamil ) and the same goes for boys. In the last few weeks I have come across so much criticism from many tamils about my friend who is dating a black guy. Before I go on to talk about her deeply I would like to let you all know that she is a very nice and very shy and very quite girl ( just so that you guys don’t start saying she’s this n that).

As I was saying; She is a lovely quite girl who usually keeps to her work, however that lovely quite girl was disturbed by a black hero who took her away into his dreams and told her that he really liked her and since that day they have hanged out at lunch and breaks and have even walked home together. But as all love stories have a twist in them. This little fairytale was ended with a another tamil guy seeing this girl with the black boy doing shopping. And ten came the climax when everyone she knew was advising her and talking bad about her and why? Because she was in love with a black guy.

Tell me honestly, even before you began to read the article; just reading the title made you think twice did it not. You might have quickly thought “ is she mad, how is this possible…” You imagination must have ran wild with similar thoughts. This is all because we have been brought up in a way to think like that and to rebel against these rare love affairs and marriages. We were not born to think as such but brought up, and if we can be trained to think bad about these love affairs between two different race lovers then we can definitely be trained to accept as well. After all life is about learning new things is it not?

In March, there was a special competition, which Tamil students across London took part in. It was the UKTSU BBP – United Kingdom Tamil Students’ Union Britian’s Brainiest Pillai (“child” in Tamil.) There was a 1st round and a 2nd round. In the first round there was a written test of 50 questions about general knowledge. If you passed that, you would go to the 2nd round, which was when a member of the UKTSU asked you questions alone verbally, and you had to answer them verbally back. There were two divisions, Under 12’s and Under 14’s, these groups would compete separately to make it fair.

Two weeks after the 1st round and 2nd round, I found out I passed to the 3rd and final round. This was would be very huge, as I would have to compete with others in front of a live audience in Copland School in Wembley. This ironically was also like my other column on the 14th of July. The 3rd round of competition took place at 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

So straight after I attended the protest rally at Trafalgar Square, I went to the competition. The well-organised members of TSU, gave us tags, with our name and a number. I was in the group 4. We went onto the stage, and got ready for the questions. I could see my Amma and my brother Mahison in the audience. It was quite tense, we had whiteboards, pens and rubbers; and the happy host called out the nine general knowledge questions, which we drew on the whiteboards, and showed to the judges and the audience. After every group was finished, and the marking was finished, it was decided who would go to the next round.

20 Under 12’s      20 Under 14’s

1st round – Whiteboard Round-10 highest scoring people progress                
2nd round-   Head to head- Balls from the hat decides which two people will face each other in head to heads. There were 5 questions; first to get 3 correct answers wins.  5 leave the contest, 5 remain

In this article I would like to elaborate on the important things that have been shown in this film. This is a really sentimental film, which shows all kinds of emotions, and for example how parents should be treated.

It is in our nature as human beings to want to differentiate ourselves from the rest of the herd. So we do all we can to do this. We cut our hair in crazy styles, we wear outrages clothes and make up, and we walk and talk in a unique manner.

These are some examples of how we conscientiously change ourselves to be exclusive. But there are certain few things that we are born with or in to that differentiate us and puts us into categories. Things like, our gender, the colour of our skin, our basic body structure, and the families we are born into. The way this family brings up their children is the foundation of the child’s view on life. This leads me onto what I want to write about... Religion.

Religion… A word that has caused so much destruction in this world. And is still causing disorder today in many peoples lives. Why is God’s name used in vain in so many instances? When the world was created / born did God separate everyone into religious groups and say, you live your lives like this and you like this? No! We did that ourselves. So why blame God for our actions?
I am not arguing about whether God exists or not, my anger and frustrations are with these so called ‘Holy’ men who are heads of religious organisations and places of worship.

I was born into Hinduism. Praying at home in front of pictures of pretty ladies sitting on lotus flowers and men with many heads was a daily ritual. Amma was adamant I did this every day. I personally did not see the point of this even from a young age.

We invest a lot of our time and money into religion. But what has religion given us in return? It has caused division amongst people; it has caused war and hatred. Mostly, it has caused discrimination.

Hello there readers! It has been a while hasn’t it? I hope my absence was not felt too profoundly by all of you. So, since my last article I have
finished my final exams at university and am looking forward to graduating next month. In other news, I have recently returned from Australia where I attended my eldest cousins wedding (it was the first wedding amongst cousins in our family hence my excitement!). It was a dream wedding where he married his sweetheart of 6 years. I can honestly say the wedding was blissful andlooking back on photos it was like a wedding from a high end bollywood film.

For me personally what made the wedding so enjoyable was meeting with my cousins, there are ten of us in total and it has been over ten years since I last saw some of them. My grandma was beaming with pride and during the wedding period seemed to have been miraculously cured of her illnesses and ailments. You could see in her eyes the sheer joy at seeing all her grandchildren, her daughters and their families gathered in the joyous occasion of her eldest grandsons wedding. It is a moment in time that can never be replaced nor recreated and I am sure it will be one of the happiest memories she will have in her lifetime.

A collection of thoughts by Uma Kumaran

I am in a state of despair and utter helplessness as I write this article. Merely a week ago I raved about the success of the TYO march in Hyde Park. It seemed to be a turning point for Tamils around the world; we felt a heightened sense of unity and truly believed that the decades of suffering that our race has endured will finally be resolved peacefully and politically. Alas the violence of the last week in Sri Lanka illustrates the nature of the world today, unstable, tempestuous and hasty. I for one feel like Britain as a whole are treading on egg shells, with the closure of Heathrow and a terrorist attack set to be ‘immanent’ in the UK our country of residence, what hope is there for sri lanka? A land thousands of miles away, out of sight and out of reach. What a poor little island, what seems like seconds after recovering from the tsunami it appears that it is on the brink of war once again.

Many of you must feel the same way as I do and I am expressing my feeling through Oru Paper hoping to let some of you know that you are not alone.

How many of you live a fake life with a made up smile and wished things were better or different than they are now. I know everyone has problems but some seem to be unsolvable. As Sri Lankan Tamils, many feel that they do not have an identity and feel as if they do not belong to the Western Culture as well as the Tamil culture. Is this because we were bought up in the middle of the two with a very diverse entourage? Or is it because we try to fit into the two cultures which are involved in our lives?

There are things that some of us find hard to accept from the Western culture and the same happens in the Tamil culture.

The most difficult situation takes places when there are not many people who understand this.

Many Tamil parents want their children to be bought up like they were bought up many years ago in a completely different continent. They understand that this is not the same country and that things work differently here but they need to understand that their children are mixing with this culture more than the one they would want us to keep up with. There is a lack of understanding and the chaos starts here.

Our young Tamils want to have the life of may be a Non-Tamil friend. They want to have the freedom to express themselves, the freedom to do what ever makes them happy, the liberty from other Tamil adults back chatting about you and the dirty looks in the streets, the choice to wear anything they would like, the right to study what their interest drives them into, the self-determination to be themselves!