I would like share my opinion on the recent Thaipusam festival held at Penang. This is the first time I attended the Thaipusam festival at Penang. It was really wonderful the way they organised the festival. I took my family there for the first time.

After 45 years of staying in Malaysia , God gave me the chance to attend the festival and it really gives me a great satisfaction to have my prayers done over there. My daughters have for every year fulfilled their vows at Batu Caves , Selangor by taking the ‘ pall kuddam ’ (milk pot kavadi).

So for a change, they took it in Penang and it was really good to see that the movement of the crowd was so smooth and not very noisy. The booths over there were nicely decorated and foods were donated. Lots of free drinks and food were offered.

It really touches my heart that Penang people are a small number but the donations were huge. Along Western Road , food and drinks were offered freely.

Why can’t Batu Caves in Selangor do the same thing? Batu Caves is actually one of the main attractions for tourism but then the Batu Caves temple management committee is really going for making money instead of donating food.

The donation money should utilised for education purposes and not for restructuring the temple buildings every year. Every year money comes in but don’t know where the money goes.

The Selayang Municipal Council should intervene and provide more booths especially for free food donors. The road leading to Batu Caves should be widened so that more religious dances can be allowed.

In Penang, the youngsters really enjoy showing their love for Lord Murugan.

The Batu Caves temple management committee should stop charging for booths that are taken up by those fonating food and drinks. In this way, the festival will be more cheerful and create a good atmosphere.

A request to the Penang Municipal Council - I saw the youngsters (both girls and boys) celebrating the festival to their maximum energy. I could see their faces were cheerful and they were enjoying the day.

I would suggest that the Penang government organise another day for the youngsters to have their dancing on the road. It was really unbelievable that the youngsters could dance non-stop from day and night.