`Yes Sujatha, it is Nayanar. What is your complaint? Lets see what can be done' - When you climb the steps to the second floor of the E K Nayanar Museum in the Nayanar Academy in Kannur, it is the voice of the Comrade that greets you first. The voice every Keralite is familiar with, the dialect every Malayali is fondly in love with, even though 18 years have passed without him. You pause mid step for a moment. All the precious memories and nuances that is E K Nayanar, all the time we had watched him on stage, on TV screen or among the masses and labourers come rushing to mind.
Realising that it is just a recorded clipping from the famous 'Mukhyamanthriyodu Chodikkam' (Phone in programme with the Chief Minister) aired long back in TV channels, you move past the top stair, take a left turn and into the E K Nayanar Comrades Gallery. There he sits, on his office chair and in the ever present Nehru jacket, writing something. The resemblance is so strong that it is difficult to convince yourself that it is indeed a silicone statue, not the Comrade in flesh and blood.
Opened On Sunday evening by the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in the presence of eminent CPI-M leaders and Sarada teacher, wife of E K Nayanar, the museum house much loved personal items of the great leader, starting from pens, spectacles and footwears to copies of the books written by him. Some of countless tokens of appreciation he had received over the years and even a few packets of Dinesh beedi which he was passionate about are also put on display. The caricatures and installations that reflect the very essence of the leader are much appreciated by the visitors.
A collage of labourers and the visitors greets those entering the ground floor of the Museum. A collection of rare photos from the personal and political life of Nayanar is arranged on the first floor. A short documentary of the struggles of Communist party in the country is displayed in the orientation theatre on the first floor. Only the first phase of the works of the Museum is completed.
Have a question?
What is your favourite food, Comrade?
Whatever you get when you are starved the most, that will become your favourite food. Same goes for me. I have had a lot of such experiences during the period of emergency and the other times I was absconding - answers the Comrade.
Visiting the Museum is also an opportunity for you to ask questions to E K Nayanar. Ask him questions, and the hologram image of Nayanar will give you an instant answer. Ask him about the first major responsibility he had taken up under the party and he tells you about his work as trade union secretary during the Aron Mill Strike in 1936.
There are a set of 10 questions prepared both in English and Malayalam. You can ask random questions also for which he would give appropriate answers. Sometimes there would be classic witty retorts for which the leader was famous for. The entire holographic persona experience based on Artificial Experience was prepared by Opezee, a Bangalore based start up.
