HE was a wayward teenager and would possibly have wrecked his own life had he not seen a 1972 Hong Kong action martial art film, the ‘Fist of Fury’ starring Bruce Lee.
R. Vairavasundaram, who turns 60 on Oct 23, has some bitter memories of his youth. He sometimes ran away from home. He also did not talk to his parents. He played truant when he was studying at Georgetown Secondary School.
He vividly remembers that his father was very hard on him when he was a little boy and used to chain him, out of worry that his hyper active son might be spoilt by bad influences in the Taman Free School flats where he was living with his family, and its neighbourhood in Penang.
A further blow came when he was sent to India to stay with his relatives. That move by his father, he said, affected him emotionally as he was very attached to his mother. Over there, he said he was verbally abused.
“All this impacted my young upbringing. I had a difficult childhood. When I came back, I became rebellious and was becoming a monster, bullying my sisters and taking their school money, and doing terrible things,” Veera, as he is better known, recalled.
At 16, Veera was sent to Kuala Lumpur to be with his cousins during the school holidays.
“They took me to watch this movie, called ‘Fist of Fury’, and my life was transformed. Bruce Lee was like a messenger sent by God to me. The movie sank into my soul.
“Instantaneously, Bruce Lee became my idol. He was also an idol to many people during that era. And I decided to become a hero like him. I wanted to be a world champion and have a well sculptured body like Bruce Lee’s,” Veera said.
After his repentance, Veera became very disciplined and trained very hard. After a few short years, he became a national sportsman. What was even more remarkable was that he became a champion in three different martial arts, namely boxing, kickboxing and sanda (Chinese kickboxing).
Veera had represented Malaysia in several international championships and won the prestigious 1993 North America Full Contact Championships held in Baltimore, Maryland.
Because of his martial art prowess and military training, Veera worked at different jobs before – a bodyguard for a prominent businessman, a bouncer for a Penang nightclub, a karate coach in New Zealand, an assistant safety and security manager at ParkRoyal Penang Resort and a security manager at Osram.
“I have never associated myself with any gangs. And I have never touched alcohol and cigarette. At the age of six, I saw my mother cried hysterically over the death of her father who was an alcoholic. That incident was etched on my mind.”
When he was working at ParkRoyal Penang Resort, Veera took up further studies and obtained his diploma in Sports Management and then completed his MBA in Sports Management. He also obtained a diploma in Security Management.
He quit martial art competition at the age of 34 when his wife, P. Rethinambal, was pregnant with their first child.
But he later returned to the ring for one last fling at age 49, fighting against a 21-year-old Thai in the Pesta 2010 Muay Thai exhibition at the Sungai Nibong Pesta site. Veera won the bout, which was also witnessed by his wife and both his daughters.
“This was actually an exhibition fight; we were not trying to hurt one another. The crowd loved it because it was spectacular.”
With his wealth of experience, Veera started a ‘Zero to Hero’ programme and has gone to schools and centres to provide motivational talks. To date, he has spoken to over 10,000 students.
Of them all, he found an exceptionally lanky 12-year-old boy from a poor family and inspired him to become a basketball player.
Today, Sharwhin Sivaragu, who is now 19 years old and stands at 6’ 10”, has represented Penang and the national team. His big moment came when he was selected by the Malaysian Basketball Association to attend the prestigious NBA & FIBA Asia Community outreach programme in Tokyo in 2019.
Veera credited state executive councillor Chong Eng for introducing Sharwhin a local basketball club (Youngsters Basketball Club) to train with and The Star former news editor (regional) K. Suthakar for approaching Kek Lok Si Temple to help provide some financial aid to Sharwhin and his sister for their education.
“Just like me, he has also been invited to give motivational talks. He has a powerful testimony,” said Veera.
While Veera has his ‘Zero to Hero’ programme, his two daughters – Priyanka, 24, and Kowsalya, 21 – developed their own student’s enrichment programme, called the ‘Spark Student Success Programme’ to motivate poor students in their academics. They have uplifted 4,000 students.
It was a joy for the family when Priyanka received the UK’s Diana Award in 2020 for empowering students. She was one of the three Malaysian recipients honoured last year.
“From young, I had started to empower my children by sending them to all these children’s enrichment programmes. In Malaysia as well as in Singapore, these programmes about leadership skills, learning skills and motivation cost a bomb,” Veera added.
Perhaps, the biggest beneficiary of their programmes was SJK (T) Jalan Sungai. In 2019, two and half months before the UPSR examination, the school registered only 15% passes for Maths and it looked like it was going to be a disaster year for them.
When the principal approached Veera for help, he got his two daughters to chip in. Together with a couple of volunteers, they spent every weekend to coach the pupils.
As it turned out, the school achieved 89.5% passes in Mathematics and 100% passes in Science in the UPSR exam. The school was thankful to them and gave them a certificate of appreciation.
“Although we were only teaching them Mathematics, what we did was we induced learning interest in them with our learn, play and fun approach,” Veera said.
Right now, Priyanka is waiting to do her internship after completing her studies in chemical engineering at Monash University while Kowsalya is at Sunway University on a scholarship doing Industrial Statistics Studies.
Veera and Rethinambal have been running a vegetarian food business together at The Garden Banana Leaf in Jalan Free School for the past four and a half years. Rethinambal, who hails from India, graduated from the University of Madurai with a Masters in Science and Zoology and from Alagappa University with a Bachelors of Education.
Every day, they have a different menu for their set lunch, thus assuring their customers they do not recycle their food. The set lunch is priced between RM8 and RM10.
Veera not only has compassion for needy students but also cares for the destitute. He goes out on his motorcycle to distribute banana leaf lunch packs to the elderly and infirm who need help, irrespective of race and religion. This volunteer at the Children Protection Society too picks up excess food and beverages from street vendors and directs them to the poor and children’s homes.
Being a vegan and adhering to a healthy lifestyle, Veera has helped two students to overcome their health issues in the last two months.
“I have some regular sponsors and I share with them progress report and submit accounts,” said Veera, who is an active Facebook user.
Those interested to assist can reach Vairavasundaram at 017-89112331 or email [email protected].
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Darwina Mohd Daud and courtesy of R. Vairavasundaram