TRIPUNITHURA: Captain Kerala Varma,92, of the Kochi royal family, died at Poonjar Palace, the residence of his wife, on Friday.Captain Kerala Varma started his career as the personal security officer of the Kochi King and later joined the 17th battalion of the Madras Regiment. However, after seven years of service, Kerala Varma was expelled from the Regiment alleging that he had close association with Communists. Captain Varma is survived by wife Ambika Thampurati of Poonjar Palace, son Prathapan, daughters Usha, Padmaja, Radhika and Jaya. The cremation will be held at 10 am on Saturday at the Kochi royal family crematorium. It is quite ironical that Captain Kerala Varma, who was given the charge of the personal security of the then Kochi King Aikya Kerala Thampuran, the master brain behind the merger of Travancore and Kochi, to protect him from the attack of Communists, later became a hardcore Communist. Just because of his strong links with the ‘Red volunteers,’ he was expelled from the military in 1949, after seven years of service in the 17th Battalion of Madras Regiment. Attracted by Communism, the Captain wholeheartedly accepted the punishment and decided to work for the party. However, again the irony worked out as he became a strong critic of the Communist party when it deviated from its basic ideology. In a recent interview given to this reporter, the Captain recollected the patriotic acts of his predecessors like Aikya Kerala Thampuran. The Captain, who had sacrificed his military service for the cause of Communism later became a sharp critic of leaders like EMS who had termed the idea of Travancore-Kochi merger as a fake coin printed at the British mint. “Actually the Kochi Kings were like ascetics who had given up everything, including their power, just for the cause of integrated India,” the Captain used to say. “Even the British Government had opposed the revolutionary steps taken by the Kochi Kings. So they denied the British Knighthood, Member of British Empire (MBE) title to Aikya Kerala Thampuran,” the Captain once said. The Captain was sad to see the way Keralites conveniently forgot the key role played by the Kochi Kings to merge the three provinces. “Neither the state nor the people of Kerala recall the names of the Kochi King who paved the way for the formation of Aikya Keralam,” the Captain used to say.“Instead of recalling their names, the Kerala Government changed the name of Kerala Varma T B Sanatorium to Thrissur Medical College,” the Captain said. Captain Thampuran left behind an unfulfilled dream of completing his autobiography just to remind the younger generation about his eventful life in which he was not hesitant to correct himself.
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