Notes by Saeran Vasanthakumar --- 21/07/07 - அப்பா This is the text of a joint speech given at my father's funeral given by my sister and I. I did the first part covering my father's career as an engineer in Sri Lanka, and my sister did the second part, covering my father as a entreupreneur, educator, and community leader in Canada. Part I: 1973 to 1989 This photo of Appa is taken around 1973 when he was just starting his career with the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). Behind him, you can see a river. That river is the Mahaweli Ganga, Sri Lanka's longest river running from the hill country of Kandy to Trincomalee harbour. In between these two locations, there lies a cascading system of dams that is used to generate electricity for the region. The building of this hydroelectric infrastructure is the main part of something called the Mahaweli Development Project. This is an important project in Sri Lanka’s history: it is the country’s largest post-colonial development project and provides the bulk of electricity to the region even today. The Mahaweli Development Project began with the construction of the Polgolla Barrage in 1970, which you can see in the background of this photo. Appa started his career as an assistant electric engineer at this location in 1973. I visited this dam with Appa ten years ago. There, he explained to me his job: as an assistant electrical engineer he had to maintain and test the remote-control operation of the gates of the dam, the intake of water to underwater pressurized tunnels, and the installation of generators in a powerhouse downstream. Appa worked with the CEB for twelve years. By the 1980s he was promoted to District Engineer, which meant he was responsible for electric generation in multiple districts. One of his jobs was to travel around as a consultant for local energy infrastructure projects. Appa was provided a jeep and a driver by the CEB. Around the same time, he was a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Peradeniya, (where his sister, Nirmala was studying at the time). Appa loved this jeep, and he especially loved to drive it around Peradeniya campus as a young, hot-shot lecturer. However, this was not an idyllic time, as the 1980s are also the beginning of Sri Lanka’s civil war. Like other Sri Lankan Tamils, Appa experienced the protests, discrimination and riots of the time, increasing the danger of staying in Sri Lanka. So Appa, shortly after getting married (1983), and having his first child (1984), resigned from the CEB and immigrated to U.K with Amma. What kind of job does a former Divisional Engineer, and part-time lecturer get in the U.K.? Back in the mid-1980s, under the Margaret Thatcher’s U.K.[1], you end up as a gas station attendant, as a Sri Lankan foreigner. Here’s a story Appa told me often: as a gas station attendant he was responsible for balancing some sort of accounting log at his store. At the end of the day, he had to validate this log with his signature. The very same signature that until recently validated engineering documents for Sri Lanka’s historically largest development project. He couldn’t stand it. He could feel his signature being wasted in that gas station. And so he decided to cast the die once more, and in 1989 migrates yet again, hoping for a better future for him and his family in Canada. Appa succeeded in Canada, in a way he couldn’t in Thatcher’s U.K. I believe this is in a large part due to Canada’s embrace of social and ethnic diversity under the (elder) Trudeau Liberals[2]. In fact, it is Trudeau’s federal housing program that provides the funds in 1983 for a new Tamil organization – SACEM - to begin construction of social housing at Lansdown and Bloor for Tamil migrants arriving from the ‘83 riots. These Tamil Co-operative Homes, as they were known, then served as our family’s temporary home just after immigrating to Canada in 1989. Sharing a single bedroom with his wife and two kids in an affordable apartment is the beginning of the second part of Appa’s story, where he transitions from an engineer (and gas station attendant), to become a successful entrepreneur, educator, and community leader. My sister will cover that part of his story in more detail, I want to return to the idea of Appa as an engineer, since no matter what Appa did, he was always first and foremost a P.Eng. He always held onto the same pride that made him quit that gas station job: “டே! நான் ஒரு Chartered Engineer! ஒரு District Engineer!" he would boast when he solved my math homework faster than I could. He never lost his mathematical acumen. He tutored me in high school calculus and used to wander into my room during university holidays and compete against me while I did my math homework. Occasionally, I would solve a problem before he could, at which point he liked to claim the problem itself was flawed, which he understood but I could not because, “டே! நான் ஒரு Chartered Engineer! ஒரு Districtl Engineer!" Appa and I disagreed on a lot of things, but his pride in his engineering days, and love of math was something that he handed down to me. My love for Appa, is why I love math, that much I believe was inevitable. In high school, I made a promise to myself that whatever career I ended up pursuing, it had to have enough of a math prerequisite that I could easily tutor my children in high school math, just like Appa did with me. In university, while pursuing my degree in architecture, I felt proud to use his old drafting equipment. I have them with me even now, even though no architect or engineer manually drafts plans anymore. He was a brutal critic as my high school calculus tutor, but he also surprised me with incredible kindness during the times I needed it the most. The person who was on the phone with me every day encouraging me after I was laid off from my first job was Appa. He hung my degrees on his office wall, printed out my research papers, and when my work got too complicated for him to follow along, he took pride that I beat him. The first person who called me after I started working as a part-time lecturer was Appa, asking me about my drive to the campus, and reminding me of his days as a young, hot-shot lecturer, taking time off from managing the hydroelectric dams being built down that Mahaweli river to show off his CEB jeep on campus. Part II: 1989 to 2021 This next part of the story of Appa’s life over 32 years in this country is about his hard work, his will power and his discipline with the theme of community encompassing it as Computek College, SACEM, Vaanavil, and CTCC became a big part of our family’s lives. For us though, who we grew up with was not Dr Tham, but Appa. He was the Appa who sang loudly every morning, waking us up to spirited renditions of old Tamil movie songs. ‘Ponal pogatum poda’ and ‘Vasantha maligai’ stick out in my memory. He was the Appa, who, before any major social event for his various community work, would march downstairs and show off his outfit of choice and check if Amma and I approved. He was the Appa who we often witnessed absentmindedly talking to himself, sometimes even punctuating points with hand gestures. As we got older, we realized this was how he prepared for his speeches. All of these fond and fun memories, was balanced with a very strict parenting style, and he was at times a micro manager and a perfectionist, which was sometimes difficult for us to experience, but, you have to hand it to Appa, it actually also continually pushed us to be better and Appa has had a big role to play in where we are now. Though he pushed us, he was always there to support us when we needed it, and he didn’t just push us, he led by example - he pushed himself just as hard. Back in the 90s, he was working essentially two jobs - starting up Computek (which was basically a whole new career direction), while also working as an Engineering consultant, and also helping the community. Appa always challenged himself - relaxing for him, was not about sitting still - he was always doing something at every stage of his life. I must mention a critical person in all of this that enabled Appa to be his best self: Amma. Amma was, is and has always been the anchor of our family. She is the one who selflessly shared Appa and took on a lot of responsibility at home so that he could help the community and so many of his family and friends. Though we have achieved very small things compared to him, he was happy with the things we did do. Saeran is a part time lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and Appa used to print out his research papers and read with interest. He really cared. I think he was prouder than me when I graduated from the University of Cambridge with my MBA degree. I think this was because his mentor and friend Professor Thurairajah did his PhD thesis there too. He was also very happy that he had two grandkids - he loved his frequent London to Toronto video calls. The two lessons he continued to share with us was: it's not just about being the most educated or about making the most money. More than that, he wanted us to get two things right in our life: Be disciplined and have will power The second lesson was to give back. Appa helped so many extended family members and also the wider community, with time and money. I had hoped we could share more successes with him, but it is not to be. We will all really miss him. The best way for us all in this room - his friends and family - to honor him, is to continue to find ways to make a positive impact on other people’s lives. By Saeran and Vaithegi Vasanthakumar Footnotes 1. See Enoch Powell’s April 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech on Commonwealth immigration. 2. See Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s April 1971 speech introducing Canada’s multiculturalism policy. --- email: saeranv @ gmail dot com git: github.com/saeranv