CHENNAI: It was a tough little period for Alex Paul Menon when he was preparing for the all important Class XII examination. His mother, Ganga Devi, had just succumbed to cancer that had afflicted her for over a year, and a pall of gloom had descended over his residence.
“But a few days after his mother passed away, Paul suddenly stood up and said he would fulfil her dreams of making it big,” recollects his uncle Balu, with his voice cracking. The boy from the nondescript village of Samathanapuram in the Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu, went on to become the topper in his school, laying the foundation for fulfilling his cherished ideal of serving the people.
Born on February 5, 1980, the 32-year-old Collector of Sukma District, Chattisgarh, who was abducted by the Maoists on April 21, had endeared all those who had had a chance to engage with him.
As a student of the Rose Mary Matriculation Higher Secondary School, his friends recall how Menon had the guts to question teachers when all others would sit silently and follow orders. “He was inquisitive and never got bogged down by anything. His confidence sometimes surprised us, though we were all in awe of his abilities,” says Hussain, who was classmate of Menon all through his school.
His father, A Varadhas, a school teacher, inculcated the habit of reading in Menon right from his kindergarten years. His relatives recall how the father would buy the son copies of Gokulam, a popular children’s magazine, and encourage him to write in English. By the time he reached high school, Menon became fluent in the language, a rarity for students from small towns.
As the boy grew and entered college, his reading habits became diverse. “This was when he became an avid reader of Leftist and other progressive writings,” points out Balu. Whenever he got the chance, Menon had the habit of debating complex issues related to the Leftist worldview.
Balu says Menon quit the college he initially joined, following problems with the management. He then enrolled at RVS College of Engineering, Dindigul, where he completed his BE in Electronics and Communication.
Menon then decided to pursue his IAS dream and came down to Chennai for coaching classes. “He was a hardworking, brilliant and jovial person, who had a single-minded approach towards his goal,” recollects Ajay Yadav, a batchmate and currently the Collector of Vellore district. Menon chose history and Tamil literature as subjects of his final examination and secured the 121st rank.
The spirited civil officer never subscribed to violence perpetrated in the name of ideology, recall his friends.
When he got the news of Naxals kidnapping two Italians in Odisha, his status update on Facebook read: “2 Italian 2rists kidnapped by Odisha Maoists. Their real face are exposed now and then.”
His wife Asha, who is now three months pregnant, made a fervent appeal to the Maoists to arrange for medicines for her husband the day after he was abducted. “He is an asthmatic and needs the inhaler at least four to five times a day,” she said when she spoke to The Sunday Standard. Asha says her husband wanted to make a difference and took every scheme launched by the Government right to the door step of the tribals.
“He ventured out to launch a Rs 1.5 crore scheme that would benefit hundreds of poor farmers. Why should people who claim to be fighting for the poor kidnap a person who is trying to help them?” she points out.
Even as appeals of ‘Release Alex Paul Menon’ kept growing, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa drew the attention of the Centre to the plight of the worrying family. In a letter to the Prime Minister on April 23, she said the family members of Menon had been camping in Chennai and had appealed to her to help in his early release. She expressed confidence in the letter that the Union Home Ministry would have already taken efforts to ensure the safe return of Menon.
That the kidnapping of a dedicated IAS officer did not go down well with the people of the country was reflected in the virtual world, when thousands thronged the Facebook page, ‘Free Alex Paul Menon’, started by American Jim Peters and expressed their anguish. As on Friday, over 4,300 persons had ‘liked’ the page, posting hundreds of messages in support of the family.
For his father though, the kidnapping itself was ironical. “He was someone who had extensively read socialist literature and subscribed to that political thought, which came to the fore in his spirited service. That people calling themselves Leftists could do such an act is shameful,” observed Varadhas, hoping the government would soon facilitate his safe return.