Jayalalithaa’s funeral to be at 4.30 pm at Marina Beach

mangaloretoday/PTI

Chennai, Dec 06: Jayalalithaa’s funeral to be at 4.30 pm at Marina Beach, Chennai.The mortal remains of Jayalalithaa were taken from the Apollo Hospital to her Poes Garden residence at around 2.30 am today. Her body has now been shifted from the Poes Garden to the Rajaji Hall.

Jayalalithaa’s mortal remains will be kept at the Rajaji Hall till around 4 today where supporters can pay their last respects to their Amma.

Amma will be laid to rest at Marina Beach at 4.30 pm near her mentor MGR and Annadurai.

Jayalalithaa had been fighting her ill health since 22 September, 2016 when she was first admitted to Apollo hospital. It was a kidney failure last month, now followed by a cardiac arrest. And Amma battled for life, for two and half months and at some point, many would say, more than what was left of her health, it was the sheer power of her will to survive that made her rage through the fate of each day.

While the hospital was surrounded by scores of her supporters who came to wish away her ill health with the power of their prayers

But at 11:30 pm on 5 December, she breathed her last. Amma died amidst her loyal, trusted supporters and party workers. The party was her only family after all.

"Take my life away, but spare Ammas" was the prayer of one of her party workers, her face streaming with tears on television.

As Tamil Nadu mourns right now, what stands out, more than the sycophancy, is the Tamil peoples genuine grief, at the loss of someone who they loved enough to make their Chief Minister six times, whose very identity was fused together with their own.

Amma was never just a chief minister. She was the AIADMK Supremo, their Puratchi Thalaivi (revolutionary leader), someone who tore into Tamil Nadus patriarchal politics with intelligence and stubborn defiance and who used her agency to uplift the life of the common man in as many ways as she could.

Early years

Behind her cool demeanour and tough exterior is a woman who will be remembered for a rare quality: the power to will herself to be anything she wants to.

In her tumultuous life of 68 years, after a rather lonely childhood either acing her studies at school or pining for her mothers love and attention, Jayalalithaa was forced to sacrifice her academic scholarship and take up a career in acting to keep her family from financial doldrums.

"Once I decide to do something, whether I like it or not, I must excel in it and do it superlatively well," she told Garewal in an interview.

And so just like that Jayalalithaa, went from being the best student to the most popular leading actress of her time.

In 1982, at the invitation of MGR, Jayalalithaa entered politics as the party spokesperson. In 1984, she became a Rajya Sabha MP. But the power of her persona and her swelling popularity with the masses made her act in ways that were too big for her boots. Her tumultuous relationship with MGR, swung between reverence, passion and power play. As MGR left no easy answers on his succession, it paved the way for her rise.

She fought like a wounded tiger. Taking in all the slander and mud slinging, Jayalalithaas worst moment was being attacked in the Tamil Nadu Assembly by DMK MLAs in 1989 when she had become the leader of the Opposition. Her hair was pulled in clumps, her saree was torn, and she was beaten with shoes and the mike as the then chief minister M Karunanidhi, his two wives and the Assembly members watched the spectacle in silence.

"In films, a woman is an essential commodity. In politics they try hard to do without them," she had said.

When she left the Assembly, she swore to return as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. In two years she fulfilled her vow. In 1991 she became Tamil Nadus first woman Chief Minister, spitting on the face of patriarchy.

Despite the charges of corruption contributing to her loss in 1996, she returned like a phoenix from the ashes after getting herself exonerated of corruption charges in 2001. And yet again in 2011 and again in 2016.

The mother she never had

If you ask people what Amma will be most remembered most for, there is no one answer. For the common man, she was synonymous with every thing that made everyday life possible.

Her towering figures rose across Amma canteens to Amma salt and Amma water to Amma grinders and Amma televisions to Amma laptops, baby kits, cement, seeds, fans, pharmacies, mobiles, call centres, cinemas, vegetable shops to Amma breastfeeding rooms at bus terminals for the convenience of working women on the go.

For lower and middle class Tamilians, it felt like you had a Chief Minister who knew exactly what you needed, who had her fingers on your pulse, anticipating your every need.

"When my mother died I was lost like a babe in the woods... I dont believe unconditional love exists in real life," Amma had said to Garewal stoically, reflecting on her tough life. She should see the state mourning for her tonight.

Her shoes are too big for anyone to fill. Rest in peace Amma.