It is well known that VS Achuthanandan had a team with him when he was the opposition leader during 2001-2006. VS did not rope us in, but all of us joined the team.

There was then a move on the government's part to scuttle free and open-source software in the curriculum reform as part of a Microsoft plan. It would have led to a loss of crores of rupees. I was then a member of the KSTA's state committee. I met several CPM leaders with relevant documents. For them, it was a complex topic.

I was apprehensive when I went to VS, who was then 77. It was my first meeting with the veteran leader. I knew the difficulty in speaking about software to VS, who had not even used a computer. "Tell the truth without exaggerating," was VS's initial words. He keenly listened to me and grasped the gravity of the issue. He asked for a statement the same day itself. For that day onwards, VS took up the issue.

After the first meeting, I received a phone call when I was in the KSTA state committee office. "We should meet," VS said over the phone. I took an autorickshaw to Cantonment House (the official residence of the opposition leader). From that day onwards, I was with VS. Even after the party excluded me from VS's personal staff, I did not leave him.

Though I had met VS to raise an issue pertaining to computers, all my efforts to teach him to use the machine failed. The computer mouse remained alien to VS, who grasped political nitty-gritties within seconds.

The author is the former Additional Private Secretary to VS.