KANNUR: "Your name?" asked the tough-looking headmaster as the young boy seeking admission to the school stood attentively in front of him along with his elder brother. "My name is Karunakaran," replied the boy showing no sign of diffidence. "Karunakara Marar" retorted the headmaster who knew the boy's parent. "No, it's Karunakaran."
The boy was firm in his reply again. That was how K Karunakaran, later known as the 'Bhishmacharya of Kerala politics', dissociated himself from the tag of his caste as he joined a lower primary school in Vadakara following the transfer of his father from Chirakkal, where he was born. It was Kunhirama Marar, the elder brother, who recounted the boy's encounter with the headmaster of the school. The ancient Kannoth Tharavadu, where Karunakaran was born on a rainy day in July 1918, was one of the privileged families under the Kolathiri dynasty, near the Chirakkal Kovilakam.
His grandfather, a famous astrologer who wrote his horoscope, recorded 'Karthika Keerthiman' pointing to the possibility of the newborn becoming the main assistant at the Chirakkal Kovilakam. His learned grandfather didn't know that Karunakaran would become the Chief Minister of Kerala and that there would be no king or kingdom in independent India.
Karunakaran learnt many things from his Englisheducated father, Ramunni Marar, who joined as a clerk in the Madras government service. The welldisciplined life that Karunakaran led was a legacy of his father. During the childhood he spent in Chirakkal near Kadalayi temple, where the young Krishna is the presiding deity, Karunakaran familiarised himself with the Mahabharatha and Ramayana as his mother recited them.
He grew up watching kathakali at the Kadalayi Sree Krishna Temple. His love for the Child Krishna and Guruvayurappan later had much to do with his experiences during the childhood days at Chirakkal. Karunakaran proved himself basically a 'leader' right from his childhood days when he led volleyball teams of children in the village of Chirakkal. Volleyball became a people's game in Chirakkal and nearby areas, thanks to Karunakaran.
Karunakaran also was basically an artist. In fact art was his first love. As a student of the Raja's High School, he became the focus of attention of his friends and teachers by drawing pictures using stumps of coal on vacant walls.
When he left Kannur for Thrissur after his school education in Chirakkal and Vadakara, his ultimate desire was to make a deeper study of art. Karunakaran had no trouble becoming better artist. But, he became an adept at the bigger artform of politics, and a 'leader' at that.