ALAPPUZHA: V S Achuthanandan was no stranger to handling the twists and turns in his political life. However, when it came to navigating the real ones, he trusted Arjunan to do the job. Arjunan, 62, spent a good chunk of his life – nearly three decades – driving one of Kerala’s tallest leaders to places near and far.
Be it VS’ dawn rides across rural heartlands to late-night returns from fiery assembly debates, the resident of Erathara house in Vayalar, Cherthala, was always behind the wheel.
“In 1992, during a trip to Kuttanad, the car carrying Achuthanandan sir broke down. Even the spare tyre was a flat. At the time, I was driving the vehicle for the CPM district committee. The then district secretary asked me to take over and drop VS off at his Punnapra home,” Arjunan said, recalling his first meeting with the CPM great.
“The very next day, I was assigned to take him to Thiruvananthapuram. And just like that, I became his regular driver,” he said. Until 2019, when Achuthanandan retired from public life, Arjunan was a constant presence in his life navigating the roads while the leader navigated his political life.
“For me, the time I spent as his driver was the ride of a lifetime,” said Arjunan, who lives in Cherthala with his wife and two daughters.