COMMENT | When I heard about brother Paul Sinnappan’s death, my memories were focused on a song, with the words "Vellakara aatciyile, rubber maram thotathile, kooliyaga vanthavane, un nelama enna, un melasma enna, adimai vailkai vaalathe, neeyum sernthu poradu" (What is the fate of the plantation worker, stop living this oppressed life and join in the struggle).

This song was introduced by Sinnappan (1950-2021). We used to teach the young plantation children this song. A song converted from the lyric of the great movie Nayakan.

Like this song, I am sure Sinnappan would have influenced the lives of many people through his services as a teacher, as a trainer, as an activist and through his talks, speeches, plays and writings. He was a full package. A reservoir of knowledge.

My activism is influenced by many people. I had Nasir and Selvam who taught me about confrontational politics. Another big influence was on grassroots work, collective and participatory decision making and the use of art. There were many people who taught me as a student the kind of society we need to build.

Among them were people like Rani, Saras, Dr Kumar, Arumugam and others. Rani has this to say about Sinnappan:

"Sinnappan was like ‘essential reading’ for aspiring community organisers, especially at a time, in the 80s when the social activism landscape was muted and quite barren of social movements and resistance activity, unlike now.

"Sinnappan opened up the world of organising to novices like us then, stressing the importance of leadership - not the leader - and leadership values such as humility, and respect for the people we were organising. He taught us about enabling and empowering oppressed people.

"He introduced us to blu tack and mahjong paper, and group dynamics and sessions that were fun, yet meant to inspire an alternative to the culture of poverty. We learnt from his humaneness. He spoke of and practiced gender equality, and not just in