Red is the color of extremes. It's the color of passionate love, violence, danger, anger, and adventure. The Color of revolution was also red as it depicts sacrifice, danger, and courage but in the pages of history the said color was undoubtedly drawn from the bleeding veins of many of our ancestors, who sacrificed their lives for the betterment of generations to come.
The dry and breezy wind of Vayalar, on the day of my visit, seems to still carry the irony smell of blood in it. The coconut palms, still carrying the bruises inflicted by the gunmen of Diwan Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer, who is being remembered for the ruthless suppression of the communist-organised Punnapra-Vayalar Revolt and his controversial stand in favour of an independent Travancore, is swaying in that bloody wind, as reflection of its past and glorious memories.
On October, 28th, 1946, the soil of Vayalar, which had witnessed the uprising of the Communist ideologies, got soaked with blood of thousands of Communist Party Members, as the mark of first notable communist revolt against the “British Agents of Travancore” had got crushed under the iron boots of the mighty imperialism. The willingness of the said warriors, to face the iron bullets, with nothing but the courage of the heart, had soaked the sugar white sand of Punnapra and Vayalar into deep red.
The “Thamrapatra” now adding elegance to my living room, was awarded in the year 1972, by then Hon: Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indira Gandhi, to Mr. P K Madhavan, my maternal Grand Father, who was the Secretary of the Communist Party of India, Cherthala Taluk, and front end strategic planner of Punnapra Vayalar Revolt, is reminding me about the immense contributions of many like him to build our nation as we see now. The statute of the warrior with varikundam (spear made out of arecanut tree stem) in his hand, at the hindsight and epic point of the revolt at Vayalar, is the reminder of a golden age, of the good hearted people who believed to the core that, their followers will lead the path to show the World the door to liberation. Alas! Where they went wrong!