Thiruvananthapuram: DCC general secretary Vinod Sen was overwhelmed by the ‘pungent and tiring smell of death’ from his childhood. No wonder, he has come out with a book on death in which he describes the emotions he has experienced seeing the deaths of many persons at close quarters. Titled Pattoor Palliyude Valavu Thiriyumbol, the book gives a glimpse into the last days of many leaders, including E.M.S. Namboodiripad and K. Karunakaran.
Sen, a former University Union chairman and SFI state committee member, was with the CPM when EMS died and with the Congress when K. Karunakaran died. The book opens with the death of SFI activist Babu and ends with the death of Ravi, Neyyatinkara councillor, who was a former district president of KSU activist.
It also talks about the death of poet Kadamanitta Ramakrishnan and former speaker G. Karthikeyan.
His grandmother’s death is the first in his memory, says the introduction. It happened when he was only five. “At noon she was bought to hospital for one last time. I saw her later in the evening. My grandmother who was very fair and slender was lying in the coffin, enveloped in a shroud. She did not talk anything. Candles were burning around her. There was also the intense smell and fragrance of incense sticks. I experienced for the first time the pungent and tiring smell of death. From there it was repetitions,” he says.
He recalls some anecdotes related to K. Karunakaran and says that the rapport he created with his followers was invincible.
In the chapter on EMS, he says that the mourning started from AKG centre. “The mortal remains were taken to Santhikavadam. In one of the vehicles that followed the funeral vehicle, I went along with Brinda Karat. The vehicles except the one carrying the mortal remains were asked to stop at Thycaud as the road to Santhikavadam is very narrow. I once again managed to reach near E.M.S. Only me and Peroorkada Sivanandan were there beside his body,” he says.
