When I came back in July 1970, I met the party leaders again.

They asked me whether I was interested in going to Delhi and working with AKG (A K Gopalan). I jumped at that opportunity. But I had to give a reason to my mother for leaving. So I applied to Jawaharlal Nehru University and got a scholarship to study there.

AKG had promised me that he would take me to Kerala. I wanted to go to Kerala and work with people. I said I don’t want to study any more. But (P) Sundaraiah decided that I should contest the elections in JNU.

• Contemporaries in Madras

I did not know (P) Chidambaram when I was in college. He was senior to me and a contemporary of N Ram (editor of The Hindu). Ram was a good cricketer, he used to play for the university and the state in the Ranji Trophy. I came to know him when I came back from Edinburgh. He had come back from Columbia after his journalism degree. I had read his thesis — he had written about the role of English in India. It was part of my thesis as well.

We had a small group in Madras who all had just come into the CPI(M) — Ram, Mythili Shivaraman — Chidambaram was part of their debating club and they started a magazine called Radical Review. His views changed . . .

... contd.