bykanimozhii vividly remember the day after pongal sometime between 2007 and 2011 we were having a great time with the artists of chennai sangamam a weeklong tamil cultural festival conceived by kanimozhi featuring folk music and dance it was the last day and i was planning a lunch with the artists unexpectedly i received a phone call from my father then the chief minister asking about my whereabouts father had always been interested in sangamam and folk artists so i began giving details of the closed door gettogether he sprung a surprise with a plain query ennai yen koopidalai why didnt you invite me it was not even a public event and here we had a cm who wanted to come and meet artistsi started laughing and said how can i call you for this but he was persistent and said he wanted to meet the artists he came directly from the secretariat to omandurar estate there he sat under a shamiana and chatted with the artists making their day special father was mesmerised by the prowess of a couple of children of artists at playing the parai drum and offered them a piece of advice nalla vaseechinga ana padikkanum done well but education is a must such is his love for art and music he is not just a connoisseur of art but a saviour too when father came to know we were facing a financial crisis he immediately offered 1 crore from his personal fund to keep the annual festival going sangamam is his favourite i would sayso is his affection towards the differentlyabled after witnessing a rally by the differentlyabled from the light house to the secretariat during the last dmk regime he called me to inquire about their demands he invited the protesters to the secretariat and fulfilled most of their demands in 1015 minutes i also remember how he once rushed to the venue of a protest by differentlyabled even skipping breakfast after reading about it in the newspapershe has the same compassion for transsexuals once i took a few transsexuals to meet the then higher education minister k ponmudi at the secretariat until then applications for degree courses in all colleges had only malefemale options under the column sex and even those few who completed schooling had trouble choosing either one we were waiting for the cm to leave as the education minister was with him seeing me father wondered what i was doing at the secretariat and called me after i reached home he wanted me to explain the whole matter about transsexuals and understand it in depth i told him about the difficulties faced by the community and he empathised with them in no time applications for degree courses in all colleges included transgender as a separate category more followed a board was formed for the welfare of transsexuals sex reassignment surgery was legalised in government hospitals and identity and ration cards were issued to transsexuals that is how father is