‘He smiled like a blooming flower’

Genial to the core, it was almost impossible to make E Chandrasekharan Nair lose his cool, his comrades remember.

KOCHI: Genial to the core, it was almost impossible to make E Chandrasekharan Nair lose his cool, his comrades remember. “He would receive anyone with a smile, just like a blooming  flower,” said CPI leader and former minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran, a current MLA. “His affable nature would disarm a visitor. He could receive any voice with a compassionate heart, even if it was coming from the bottom of society.” According to the leader representing Chadayamangalam, the constituency which Chandrasekharan Nair represented during 1977-82, the latter had an extraordinary quality to control the bureaucratic system with his soft manners. 

“Chandrasekharan Nair was the one who found Kerala had a potential to be marketed as a global tourist destination. At the same time, he was the first to prove a government could make a successful intervention in the market,” said Mullakkara.  Even when he kept a pleasant attitude, he had no qualms about firm decisions. Thus was born Maveli - the myth turned into a shop - for the public from a state government.

“Any shop needs a name. If it was a private party, it was easier. But that is not the case with a government. Hence, he selected Maveli because the only day when those from the lowest strata could ensure a proper meal was on Thiruvonam, the day the mythical Maveli visited the state,” Mullakkara recalled. CPI leader and chairman of the Kerala State Housing Board P Prasad, however, has a clear memory of an occasion when Chandrasekharan Nair burst out at him. “AISF decided to celebrate its 60th anniversary in 1996 at Thrissur when I was its state president. 

Almost all the front line national leaders of CPI were attending the function and we all wanted the presence of Chandrasekharan Nair. However, he declined when someone conveyed this to him. So the mantle fell on me as we shared a very warm relationship. Along with V S Sunilkumar, who was the state secretary, I met him. However, he blasted me,” said Prasad.

He was surprised to see a different face of the leader, who was the Minister for Food and Civil Supplies then. “The Onam days are close,” Chandrasekharan Nair told the student leaders. “I am searching from where to get essential commodities, such as rice and chilly, for the public at a lower price. I can’t afford any delay in that. Hence, I can’t make it to the public meeting,”  he continued.This showed his disposition and diligent nature as an administrator who weighed work over words, said Prasad.

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