Grandparents Day is being celebrated for the first time this year in Malaysia. To commemorate this, Love and Welfare Society, Perak organised Grandparents Day at Syeun Hotel. James Ratnam, President of the Society said we have been celebrating Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and now we have the opportunity to celebrate Grandfather’s Day and we can recognise their role in the family.
Some fifty senior citizens including members from the Senior Methodist Fellowship from Bercham and Canning Garden were present. James’ advice to the seniors was to face challenges and accept results, enjoy yourself, forgive and accept forgiveness, accept physical disabilities and remember all of us have to depart one day.
The Society presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to four grandfathers for their outstanding service to society. First of the recipients was Dato’ R. Thambipillay, retired OCPD Batu Gajah. Thambipillay is President of Wira Association Malaysia. He is known among his local and Commonwealth friends as the initiator of the Remembrance Day Ceremony at God’s Little Acre in Batu Gajah. In 2006 he was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II. He has authored three books and is still active in a number of NGOs.
The second recipient was P.S. Govindan who comes from a humble family. Due to financial constraints he stopped his education after completing his Higher School Certificate and became a teacher. He retired as headmaster of a government Tamil School, Sungai Pari and has been a mentor for a number of leaders in the community.
The third recipient J.R. Nadarajah is also a retired headmaster of a government Tamil School Sungai Pari. He is an inspiration for many Tamil students and teachers.
The fourth recipient was Joseph Thambiah who is a retired headmaster of Methodist Secondary School, Tanjong Malim. He is one of the pioneer teachers recruited from India in the early fifties to teach in the mission schools. He is a lay priest at St John’s Church. Due to his illness he was not able to attend the function.
The recipients were garlanded and given token gifts. All of them are in their late eighties and are still active in social service.
A. Jeyaraj
