Raising a voice for the needy

‘Mike’ Murthy

For more than half a century, this Good Samaritan has spent his life doing a service which is vital, but at the same time hardly noticed. In the districts of Ramanathapuram and Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu, wherever public gatherings are held – be it local folk festivals or something similar which attracts sizeable crowds- ‘Announcer’ Murthy arrives all on his own and his distinct voice is soon all over the public address systems in that location belting out announcements and other useful info on traffic arrangements made by the local law and order machinery, to smoothen crowd management and enable normalcy. The PA system which he uses to do his work is owned by him and he desists from making commercial announcements.

It is no wonder then he is a sought after personality by the police in not only his hometown but also all over the southern districts of Tamil Nadu. His multi-lingual ability to converse in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and English is another huge plus in the situation that he usually deploys his skills, a great help to the police who are engaged in crowd management.

Recalling his entry into this unique zone of yeomanly service, Murthy in an interview with Tamil magazine Kungumams says: ‘My journey started in 1964, when a police sub- inspector, Swarna Ganapathy Iyer, made me get into a police jeep in Sivaganga town to make announcements. I had a good voice then and hence it was very useful for the cops.”

What started thus has resulted in tracing very many missing kids, ‘who are the first to get lost in such situations’ he informs. Murthy recounts other interesting instances when his experience and tact in reaching out to heavy crowds via his announcements paid dividends. In one case, a woman had lost her gold chain, which was naturally a major blow to her.

‘I heard her out and appealed over the PA system that here is a woman whose economic hardships will further worsen if she does not get her asset back. A while later, a man cleared his way through the crowd and came to me to declare that he had found the chain and despite extreme temptation, decided to return it to the actual owner’.

On another occasion, during a festival at Nagoor, the town which has the holy shrine of Muslims, a 3-yr-old boy, Shahul Hameed got lost. It turned out to be a mighty challenge for Murthy to get him back to his anxious parents. Even after making announcements throughout the night, there was no trace of the boy.

In a move which is surely praiseworthy, Murthy recounts that he went along with the local police officials in the neighbouring villages surrounding the festival venue and managed to locate the boy, who was speech impaired and hence could not communicate his fate to the folks who had kept him in their home. No wonder, he is revered for his selfless service.

His social service has not been without its pitfalls. Once during a clash in Paramakudi, a neighbouring town, the miscreants attacked him too, thinking that he was also a police man. It left him with a hearing loss in one of his ears, which continues till date. Still, placing the larger good in mind, Murthy’s baritone continues to work wonders and is still an assuring source of relief for the people in and around his town till date.