ALAPPUZHA: The one significant event that marks the anniversary of the Punnapra- Vayalar Martyrs’ Day on October 27 is the lighting of the torch at Valiyachudukad, where over 1000 martyrs were cremated following the communist uprising and massacre in 1946. On Tuesday, V K Dayanandan, a sexagenarian communist, was busy making the torchin his house at Vettukad in Karakalam ward in Alappuzha municipality. He has been doing it with a passion for over 50 years to spread the message of the revolution waged against Sir C P Ramaswami Iyer’s government in British India in the battlegrounds of Vayalar and Punnappra. On Thursday morning, Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan will light the torch, like he has been doing it for the last ten years, and hand it over to the volunteers. The torch will be carried to Vayalar, the martyrs’ memorial. Later a torchlight procession will be taken out by 17 persons in Cherthala and Ambalappuzha taluks covering 35 km. The CPM and CPI are jointly organising the celebrations. Dayanandam, 67, of Veluthedathu house, makes the torch with cotton and coconut oil. The cloth is dipped in coconut oil and wrapped on the torch pole. Dayanandan said that “three cotton cloths are needed to wrap the torch and three kg of coconut oil to dip the cloth. “My uncles Purushan and Divakaran began the torch-making and later it was handed over to me,’’ he said His son Ajayakumar also helps in the making of the torch. One of his family members will also participate in the procession. “During Emergency, the police blocked the torchlight procession. But they avoided the blockade and lighted the torch in Vayalar,” he recalls.
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