ALAPPUZHA: On a rain-swept Wednesday, the lanes filled up with red flags and slogans as V S Achuthanandan returned home for the last time.
The sky wept through the day. But it didn’t matter. The people came anyway. Some on foot, some in private vehicles, some in crowded buses that had started long before dawn. From across the state, they came to Velikkakath house. Not out of duty but affection for the man who stood by them.
“I travelled from Pala. We are a group of 25 people,” said Geethamma, standing in the slow-moving queue outside the leader’s home. “Our children have never seen VS in person. I told them they must see the man who never bent. Not even to age. He was someone who understood our homes, our struggles. That never changed.”
For the local residents, this moment was bittersweet. It was grief, yes. But also pride. Because Paravoor was not just VS’ hometown. It was where he had first organised people, where he had once been jailed for standing up to landlords, where he became ‘Comrade VS’.
After over 22 hours on the road, VS’ funeral procession reached his birthplace by 12.20pm. His only surviving sibling, Azhikutty, was present at the house to bid him farewell. The first public homage in Alappuzha was held there. The path leading to Velikkakath house had become a corridor of memories. From faraway Kannur came Mohanan. He arrived by night and waited hours in line.
“My father used to say, if EMS was the mind of Kerala’s left, VS was its heart. I just wanted to say thank you.” By 3.20pm, VS’ body was brought to the CPM district committee office, and later in the evening, around 6.10pm, to the Recreation Ground for public homage.
Scores of people could not catch that final glimpse as mourners kept pouring in, delaying the procession by many hours. The time for tributes at the party office was cut short but nothing could break the spirit with which they hailed VS.
For the thousands who gathered, the sentiment was hardly political. It was personal. As for Nandakeyan, 82, from Kavalam, simply being present felt more important than stepping forward to see VS at the Recreation Ground. The youngest of eleven brothers, his fondest memory of VS was watching him drop by their family’s tea shop and chat with his father. “We are a communist family. Then, now, and until the end. I know almost all the comrades here, but it wouldn’t be right to skip the line. So I have come, I have stood here. That is enough,” Nandakeyan said.