He fought for freedom, and against Emergency

Vasu might be 102 but still moves about his house in Cheruvannur in Kerala's Kozhikode district with the help of a walker, reads at least two newspapers a day, and watches television news with great intent, trying to keep himself informed of what's happening in the country. Born in January 1923, Vasu got a whiff of nationalistic sentiments very early on when his father took him to hear Mahatma Gandhi when the latter visited Kozhikode in 1934. He was just 11 then, but by the time he was in his late-teens in 1942, Vasu found himself leading an agitation by the Congress in his native Cheruvannur on the sidelines of the Quit India movement. That year, he was arrested and sentenced by a judge to three-and-a-half months in jail where he was tortured.

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In 1943, Vasu had to go underground in erstwhile Madras for over nine months after the police attempted to put him in preventive custody in connection with a case of hoax bomb threat on Farook bridge. "I had nothing to do with it but because I was jailed previously, my name was on the police list and I had to go into hiding. It was an extremely tough period," Vasu told HT over phone.