His dickensian tale

KOCHI: It was a childhood filled with hardships for this MLA from Vypeen that came to influence his life considerably.Sarma says seeing life from close quarters helped him acquire a deeper understanding of human issues.He lost his father when he was all of four and saw his mother struggling to bring him and his two brothers up. The family was in dire straits, and Sarma remembers the hard times they suffered. The death of his mother came as another jolt. “died of old age, but it saddened me a lot then,”he says.The other death that affected him deeply was that of CPM leader A P Varkey, who was his political mentor.  Considering the troubles he had on the home front, the MLA missed college and joined a technical certificate course with the aim of getting a job. He also applied abroad like countless others. Just around that time, a comrade who had given Sarma a membership to the party earlier urged him to look at politics seriously. Still, Sarma continued to be in search of a job. “This time I was part of a major strike (related to fishing harbours). Just then I was called for training in a company, but I was too involved with the issues at hand to go,”he remembers. It was at this time that A P Varkey gave a definite direction to his life. “words still resound in my ears. He was a person with foresight and his advice helped me a great deal,”he says. “It was AP who asked me to choose between the party and job. Once he put that condition, there was no alternative for me and I decided to work for the party,”he says. Remembering his days in the DYFI, the youth wing of the CPM, he tells us about a state-wide campaign he undertook on foot. “campaigns helped me understand several issues of the common man,”says.  Looking back at his stint as a minister, Sarma says that it was during his time as electricity minister that load shedding was done away with. But he feels a bit dejected about not being able to have brought in the aquarium reforms bill. “was one of my dreams. But because of a certain conflict with the law department, it did not materialise,”he notes. On his developmental plans for Vypeen, he feels education needs to be made a priority. He also mentions about drinking water being a huge problem in his region, though he assures that steps are being taken to improve the situation. Sarma’s other aim is to turn Vypeen into an attractive tourist destination.