KUALA LUMPUR: It was at the tender age of 7 that Datuk Seri M. Saravanan first carried a kavadi during Thaipusam.
It is a devotion that the MIC deputy president tries his best not to miss, though there have been times when he has had to due to circumstances.
Saravanan turned 55 on Saturday, the day before Thaipusam this year and true to form, he was there in Batu Caves, carrying the kavadi.
Videos circulated online show him dancing and spinning in a trance, wearing emerald green trousers.
"(I have carried the kavadi) almost every year, since I was 7... everything went well (this year)," he told the New Straits Times.
Carrying the kavadi is a symbol of sacrifice or offering, and Saravanan is no different from any other devotee.
"(I do it for) inner peace, the well-being of everyone and (to thank) God for what I am (today)," he said.
Thaipusam commemorates the occasion when the Goddess Parvati gave Lord Murugan a vel (divine spear) to vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman and his brothers.
Therefore, Thaipusam is a celebration of the victory of good over evil.
The kavadi itself is a physical burden, the bearing of which is used by the devotee to implore Lord Murugan for assistance, usually on behalf of a loved one who is in need of healing, or as a means of balancing a spiritual debt.