Written By: Vithuchan Amirthalingam, Denmark
Do you live in Canada and have ever wondered about life in UK? Do you live in the UK and wonder about in life in Australia? Do you live in Denmark and ever wonder about life Canada? Today, I will try to answer these unanswered questions.
The Tamil population in Denmark is obviously not so large unlike UK and Canada. Denmark is a small Scandinavian country with 5,5 million citizens. That’s only half of the citizens in London (to compare with UK). The Danish-Tamils are very passionate and open towards our roots and our own unique Tamil culture. The amount of events here in Denmark is quite impressive, when we look at the population and at the country’s size. Recently we had the Kondattam 2013 show back in February (Kondattam is a similar show to UK’s Megamaalai and Canada’s Ilanthalir.) It gave the Danish-Tamil youth a unique opportunity to showcase their talents throughout singing, dancing, acting etc. in a firework of a show. Unfortunately I didn’t watch the show, but I am basing this statement on the huge amount of feedback the show received on various social media.
Denmark and the Danish people have a unique culture and mentality about associations. Denmark is a country that has many associations. I’m surely proud of this and it does also makes me proud to call myself a Dane. Sports and other cultural events have a major influence on the lives of the Danish-Tamil youth. The most popular sport here in Denmark is definitely soccer (Football in Europe.). I will refer to soccer as football, since I’m used to it and to make it easier for myself. Annually the Tamil Football Association (DTFF) (Danish Tamil Football Association in English.) and other private football tournaments are routinely organized for Danish-Tamil youth. In the winter there are loads of indoor tournaments. In the spring and summer, it’s about time to play the outdoor tournaments. Especially there’s a lot of prestige in winning the annually Karumpulikal Cup (also referred as Tamil Europa Cup). The best teams from Denmark will participate alongside some few international teams mostly from UK, Germany and France.
The unique thing about these tournaments is significantly the beginning ritual. Before each tournament here in Denmark, we start with a 2 min “Agavanakkam” for our Maveerar and the civilians who lost/sacrificed their lives during the civil war. Following the Agavanakkam we always stand and salute while our national flag is being raised in the tunes of “Eruthu Paar Kodi”. This is a booster for every single player to the tournaments. We know who/what we are playing for.
The whole situation has a major influence on my football. I’ve played football since childhood, when I was 7. As soon as last Tuesday, I played with my Tamil Eelam hat to practice. Immediately I felt an extra moral boost. I felt like that hat simply absorbed the power of the flag. Our flag is one of the most holy things in our entire culture. At the end of the training session we play our usual match, mostly 7 vs 7. I played the striker position alongside my mate. Suddenly I got a through ball and before that I’ve even managed to see my friend in a pole position. I passed the ball on and saw my friend blast it into the net. It was the hat. I took my hat off, took a deep look on it and put it back on. When I saw the foundation of the Tamil Eelam National Football Team (The Tamil Eelam FA) I definitely saw a childhood-dream come true. If I someday get the chance to put the national jersey over my head and grab a goal… Two fingers will be pointed up to the sky (like Brazilian Kaká) and my celebration would immediately be dedicated to my now dead grandmother and to the fallen heroes and civilian population back home. WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. TAMILARIN THAAGAM TAMIL EELA THAAYAGAM.
Tags: Speak Out
