Dato Nagaraju Applasamy and my request to make a presentation on illiteracy

On September 24^th, 2018, I telephoned Dato Nagaraju Applasamy whom I have known for about a year.

Dato Nagaraju is the president of Gabungan Persatuan Persatuan Masyarakat  India Sabah. He is a district councilor at Lahad Datu.

I telephoned him on 24^th September 2018 and explained that I would be grateful if he could slot me in for a 20 minutes talk on my favourite subject on ‘How to reduce illiteracy’ in any of his gatherings or one specially organized for me to make a 20 minutes presentation with about 40 minutes for Q&A. He said that he will get his deputy Mr.Rishi Kumar to telephone me.

On 27^th September I reminded him about our telephone conversation.

Again on 8.10.2018, I reminded him. This time around he provided me the telephone number of Mr.Rishi Kumar.

I immediately called Mr.Rishi Kumar and he asked me what I wanted to talk to him about. I explained and he said that he had been briefed by Dato Nagaraju.

I had mistakenly thought that Dato had not informed Mr.Rishi but when I was informed that he had indeed informed Mr.Rishi, a few questions came to my mind immediately.

i.                     Why did Mr.Rishi not telephone me?

ii.                   Why ask me to tell him what I wanted to talk about and at the end of the explanation say that he had been briefed?

Anyway, I continued with the conversation and he said that he simply cannot organise a meeting as he has to get feedback from the people. He asked me for brochures to send to the people on his list.

I responded that I do not have brochures but I can send him a write-up.

He then said that this is a time when people cannot decide as Deepavali is around the corner. I responded that this is not urgent and can be held in December or even later.

I then asked for his email and he said that no one will read emails and asked me to WhatsApp. I said that I find it difficult to write a WhatsApp message as my smart phone autocorrects everything I write and a lengthy message is not possible as I write using one finger on the smartphone.

I then thanked him and said to leave the matter and he too said thank you and we ended the conversation on a polite note.

Some thoughts on the matter-

i.                     What impression would I have of Dato Nagaraju if I had not telephone him the third time? Won’t I think that he did not keep his promise of informing Mr.Rishi?

ii.                   Why did Mr.Rishi not contact me and tell me that what I had in mind won’t be feasible?

iii.                  Do we need leaders like Dao Nagaraju who does not care about an important matter such as reducing illiteracy? His profile says he is the president of Gabungan Persatuan Persatuan Masyarakat  India Sabah

iv.                 When are Indians going to progress to the level of the Chinese in this country?

v.                   Why do many assume that parents will not be interested in such a talk on eradicating illiteracy?

vi.                 I had on the onset said that I will pay for airfare, accommodation and food. All Dato has to arrange is for the place for me to make my presentation. Also, I had said that I don’t mind it being part of another talk.