KOCHI: At 28, Hibi Eden is one of the youngest MLAs in the whole of Kerala. He is also the President of the Congress Youth organisation, National Students Union of India(NSUI). As the son of late Congress MP George Eden had the halo of a celebrity from his campus days itself . But it was precisely his experiences at college that gradually launched him into the larger world of politics. Campus thus holds a special place for Hibi.“Till school I was hardly interested in politics,” he says.Hibi spent a major chunk of his campus life at Sacred Hearts College in Kochi where he did his Pre-degree and Degree courses.He vividly remembers the first day at college. “The canvassing began on the very first day. An SFI leader came first. He did not realise I was the son of George Eden. He called me aside and gave me a long talk about the party and its ideology. Later when they knew who I was, they left me alone,” he laughs.“In class we used to awed by these student leaders. Some of them gave very good speeches. Everyone in college was involved in politics in one way or the other.” Even the white ‘mundu’ of the politicians seems to have impressed Hibi. “Only people involved in politics wore mundu. If on a particular day, a large number of people come to campus spotting mundu, then it means there is a strike.”Gradually Hibi Eden joined the party, contested elections and got into politics in a big way. “Initially it was about just getting some attention. It used to feel cool to go on strikes, to bunk classes and so on. "Hibi remembers one incident in particular. “It was Onam time. There was this belief in college that the party which lays a flower carpet (pookalam) on a particular portico in college wins elections the next time. We brought flowers the night before, we jumped over the fence and got into the campus at night. After one whole night of work we laid the carpet by six in the morning. But as luck could have it, one of the Fathers came in the morning and saw us. He was livid and asked us to remove it. There was some tussle, we tried to stop him but he didn’t budge. He brushed it off with his legs,” he reminisces. “Later we consoled ourselves with some black coffee at a friends place,” he smiles.But after the elections, college spirit soon took over.“Once the elections were over, it was all about college. Everyone was united. There were many inter-college competitions. It was always busy and colourful. There were lots of events, where we organised programmes, assigned responsibilities to people….Campus is where we start making close relationships. There were at least 2000people you knew by name.” says the MLA. Being a political leader also had its ‘privileges’ as the MLA puts it. “For one, you could, ‘officially’ bunk a number of classes.”Little surprise then that Hibi holds his college life quite close to his heart.
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