It was just another weekend where my plans for the day were just to watch a good series, read a book, and chill. That’s when I opened Facebook and saw my newsfeed flooded with the demise of a person with a picture and a name – Mythily Sivaraman.
The title ‘Veteran Marxist Leader’ caught my attention and I couldn’t stop myself from searching who she was. After reading about her and the roles she has taken for society I decided to pen down my words and here I am.
Mythily Sivaraman was born in Telangana and brought up in Chennai. She did her Masters in Public Administration in Delhi. She also studied at Syracuse University, Europe. She had a promising career in the United States. She also worked as a research assistant in the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation. She played an important role in publicizing the atrocities of the Kizhvenmani Massacre incident. That’s the major incident that dragged her into the field, to serve people. She has also written a collection of articles and essays on the massacre and compiled them as a book, ‘Haunted by Fire’.
By continuously raising her voice for people, she joined the Communist Party of India after working with CITU and also became the co-founder of All India Democratic Women’s Association(AIDWA) with veteran Comrades Pappa Umanath and K.P.Janaki Ammal. She joined hands with like-minded people and raised her voice against the anti-people policies of the Government. She gave her support for every obstacle that women faced. She focussed more on the issue of casteism and combined it with the class struggle. She has played a very crucial role in the Vachathi, Chidambaram Padmini, and Premanandha cases.
Ms. Mythily Sivaraman was suffering from memory loss for more than 10 years. Her daughter Ms. Kalpana says, though she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she remembered the word ‘Comrade’ and that shows how much it has impacted her life.
We can seldom see people who are well-educated, working for society’s betterment or getting down on the field and helping the needy. Abandoning her career in the UN and returning to India to serve the downtrodden, standing with them is thought-provoking.
She is a person to get inspired by. Silently wishing to meet such personalities at least later in my life so I can sit with them and admire how beautifully they have lived their lives while most of us are just surviving.
Red salute to you, Comrade Mythily Sivaraman!
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Author
Aathira Srishti is a Chennai-based young aspiring author who wrote her first book “Will you be my better half” at the age of 17. She is also known by her personal name Santhiya. The book created a huge craze among the fangirls of the protagonist. She received the prestigious “Aatral Ilavarasi award” from Aram Tamil Cultural Centre. She is now working in one of the top IT companies and carrying forward her love for literature and writing. She is active on youtube, sharing the importance of books and inspiring others to get their hands on reading. To get her regular updates, connect with her on Instagram @aathirasrishti.
