Dr Malathi Damodaran, daughter of EMS, lived a life defined by service, integrity, and resilience

Thiruvananthapuram: Senior paediatrician Dr Malathi Damodaran (87), who passed away in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, carried forward the steadfast ideals of her father, EMS Namboodiripad, the Communist leader and former Chief Minister of Kerala, along with the simplicity of her mother, Arya Antharjanam.

She breathed her last at her residence in Mangalam Lane, Sasthamangalam. Her funeral was held today at Thycaud Shanthikavadam. 

It was EMS who had named his eldest daughter ‘Malathi,’ a fact she discovered much later through one of his articles. In it, he shared that the name was inspired by Malathi Choudhury, a freedom fighter and leftist activist.

When she passed Class 10, EMS gave Malathi two advice. While the first was to carry out her responsibilities without depending on others, the second was to plan the next day’s tasks today itself. Her entire life, Malathi sincerely tried to fulfil her father’s wishes.

Malathi married Dr A D Damodaran at a time when Communist leaders were being branded as Chinese spies and sent to jail, and she feared that EMS too would be arrested. As a wedding gift, EMS presented her a copy of his autobiographical work, ‘Keralam malayalikalude mathrubhumi’ (Kerala, the motherland of Malayalis). The message on the cover page of the book was a quote from ‘Sakunthalam.’

Earlier, EMS was sent to jail when Malathi was eight years old. Her brother Sreedharan was born the very next day. During those days, when she was aged eight, Malathi took care of her mother, who was suffering from chickenpox. Visits to the house by the police in search of her father were a regular sight for Malathi during her childhood.

Malathi’s school education took place at Kudamaloor, under the care of her uncle, Vasudevan Namboodiripad. EMS was underground at that time, and he came to meet Malathi when he could.

Subsequently, Malathi cleared her intermediate from Queen Mary’s College in Chennai. Whenever he had to travel to Chennai, EMS would first go to Malathi’s hostel. "He would be very exhausted. My father never gave me any money. How could he give me anything when he himself would have nothing? However, he shared the boundless love in his heart," Malathi said once. 

EMS had served three prison terms in Vellore Jail. Years later, after becoming Chief Minister, he returned to Vellore to address a programme organised by the college union. Malathi, who was a medical student in Vellore, heard his speech from among the audience.

After college, Malathi was employed at the Atomic Energy Centre. However, she was not given the appointment order because she was the daughter of a Communist. Malathi was deeply troubled by the unfounded allegation that she had secured admission to the MBBS course at Vellore due to her father's influence. In truth, she was not selected on her first attempt and had initially enrolled in a BSc course at Victoria College in Palakkad.

Malathi had also reacted sharply when she found that the references to EMS in Arundhati Roy’s book ‘God of Small Things’ were untrue. Yet another significant event in Malathi’s life took place in 1969, when doctors recommended a high-protein meat diet for EMS when he developed stomach pain. Even though EMS was adamant against eating meat, Malathi made him follow the orders of the doctors by love, scolding and coercion.  EMS reacted to this incident by commenting, “You have to obey your daughter when she is a doctor.”

Malathi’s daughter Neelambari Bhattacharya had acted in ‘Kayatharan’, a movie directed by Sasikumar. “My daughter married a man from Bengal. When Neelambari began to speak, my father was anxious to know which language she spoke. He became happy when I told him that she spoke both Malayalam and Bengali,” Malathi had said.

Love for children
Malathi was engaged in research which explored means to improve the health of mothers and children. After retiring from service at Christian Medical College Hospital in Vellore, Malathi returned to Thiruvananthapuram and established a children’s clinic at Gandhari Amman Kovil Road. She was active in the programmes of ‘Medico Friends Circle,’ an organisation working for public health. In her profession, Malathi was known for the dedication and empathy she displayed.