Once dreaded by many and loved by several others, the nonagenarian lives a dignified life making umbrellas and raising his voice for human rights and social justice.
A Vasu. Photo: Hafeesa P K
The collective gaze from the wall over the entrance is as cold as a monsoon morning in Kerala.
The framed black and white photograph of BR Ambedkar over the entrance to his small accommodation has faded. The entire wall over the entrance is covered with framed photographs, arranged according to the frame’s height.
Ambedkar is the tallest, followed left to right by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and P Krishna Pillai. The photographs occupy the entire breadth of the wall.
The photographs are reminiscent of the hot-blooded revolutionary past of the resident of the two-bedroom house at Pottammal in Kozhikode.
They also stand testimony to the fact that the embers of a failed revolution are still burning within the resident, Ayinoor Vasu — aka GROW Vasu — even as several of his fellow former Naxalites took to god, godmen, and right-wing politics. They needed an umbrella to shield themselves from their bloodied past — and solitude.
Naxalbari, a small village in the foothills of the Himalayas, made headlines in the summer of 1967. The peasant uprising in the West Bengal village ignited several Leftist young minds in Kerala as well.
A Vasu at his residence. (Praveen K)
Literature on Mao and Radio Peking kindled in them a firm belief that an armed struggle was necessary to end the exploitation of farmers and the subaltern populace.
Their belief in Maoist political sentiments and ideology did not make power grow out of the barrel of the gun. The Naxalites launched two separate but coordinated attacks, historically known as the Thalassery-Pulpally attacks.
The one at the Thalassery police station failed, but the attack on the Madras Special Police Camp at Pulpally under Arikkad Varghese left two policemen — a wireless operator and a sub-inspector — dead, on 24 November, 1968. Vasu, now 93, was part of the Thalassery action.
The then-government under EMS Namboodipad cracked down on the Naxals, the movement failed after offering a stiff residence.
A year after the EMS government fell due to internal conflicts within the constituent parties, Varghese was killed in a police encounter — Kerala’s first — which later was reported to be a staged one, with one of the policemen, constable P Ramachandran Nair, assigned to shoot him, spilling the beans in 1998.
Varghese, perhaps the closest Malayali counterpart of Che Guevera, was shot dead on 18 February, 1970, on specific orders from his superior officers, the DIG KP Vijayan and IG K Laxmana, Nair later confessed to Vasu.
Four days after Varghese’s death, Vasu was arrested. It was after the Thirunelli-Thrisslery Naxalite action of 1970 in which both men participated.
Vasu has set up a book stall in one of the two rooms at his residence in memory of Varghese.
Ayinoor Vasu spent seven years and three months in the Kannur Central Prison without bail before he was released in April 1977, a month after the internal Emergency was withdrawn.
A Vasu with his umbrella. (Praveen K)
As an active trade unionist, he led a workers’ movement against the Birla-owned Gwalior Rayons at Mavoor, Kozhikode, which led to the closure of the unit that had already become unstable due to the frequent strikes by various trade unions.
Heading the workers’ movement under the organisation, the Gwalior Rayons Organisation of Workers (GROW), earned the former active Naxalite the sobriquet, GROW Vasu.
Vasu, still a bachelor at 93, now makes umbrellas for a living. He said he gets orders for around 6,000 umbrellas annually from across the state. Among the several colourful umbrellas now seen under the monsoon sky, some could be from Vasu’s stable.
The former active Naxalite said he makes 20 umbrellas a day under the brand name, Marivillu, or rainbow, matching the quality of big names in the Kerala market.
“I have never sought alms in life,” he told South First when asked about him still toiling at an advanced age.
Vasu said his previous experience in running an umbrella installment scheme to raise funds for the then-undivided Communist Party in the early 1960s gave him the confidence to stick to the profession.
Even after his release from jail, he remained a Naxalite, and was the state convener of the party’s coordination committee. He left the party in 1981 after he was “insulted and humiliated” by the “Brahmanical leadership” of the movement, he said.
Across Kerala, most of Vasu’s old comrades and well-wishers wait for his umbrellas. Compared to popular brands, Vasu’s umbrellas cost less but maintain the same quality and style. He is also keen on grasping the technological shift happening in the sector. The latest fad is umbrellas made of thick German-made cloth and ultra-small umbrellas.
A rarity in contemporary public life, Vasu’s integrity is often lauded. (Praveen K)
To ensure quality, Vasu often turns down orders from wholesalers. “It would remain as a small enterprise aimed at supporting my bare minimum needs,” he said.
“For the last seven years, it’s been an annual affair for me to buy umbrellas from Vasuvettan (elder brother Vasu). Each order to him is a salute to his determination to live without depending on anyone,” Deepa Thomas, an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at St Joseph’s College, Devagiri, Kozhikode, said.
“He is a rarity in the contemporary public life, and his integrity is matchless. Buying an umbrella from him is respecting a person of integrity,” she told South First.
The proceeds for the sale of umbrellas during the three rainy months support him throughout the year.
“Vasu lives for his causes even now without any compromise. His umbrellas are extensions of his politics and determination. It’s a rarity to see such people,” said K Ajitha, a former Naxalite and contemporary of Vasu, who later focused on feminist movements.
The nonagenarian is still active. in human rights movements and socio-cultural collectives. “I don’t ask for money to attend events. The umbrellas are of great help. Whether the monsoons are early or delayed, I have a steady segment of buyers from across the state,” he said.
Why do they buy umbrellas from him? “They believe in my convictions, the social role, and the quality of the umbrellas I make,” Vasu said.
Interestingly, Che Guevera is not among the galaxy of revolutionaries whose photographs occupy a place of pride over the front door of Vasu’s house, above an old-fashioned television set and a mirror. But Ambedkar does.
“I know that Marx is the greatest thinker in the world. But as far as the Indian condition is concerned, Ambedkar’s thoughts are more valid,” he said in an interview.
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