1. Where were you born ?

I was born and brought up in ( and perhaps fed up with !) Madras and spent the first 21 years of my life in that city.

My early memories are all very pleasant and my life as a boy was almost the same as that of Swami ( of R.K.Narayan's Malgudi ). Our colony called Vedachala Gardens , was a real garden in those days and we used to play all the seasonal games - goli ( marble), bambaram ( top ), paandi ( hopscotch), kombattam ( a game with sticks ), football and of course cricket throughout the year. We were a group of more than 10 boys in our colony. I still fondly remember our visits to the Santhome Beach and Kapali Temple, cricket tournaments in Cemetry Ground ( by crossing the dirty Adyar river ), visiting the houses in the colony for sundal during Navaratri , rose milk of Kalathi shop in Mylapore , my family's annual visits to our village ( which involved travel to Madras Central by jatka vandi, same as tonga, by train to Tyagadurgam and then by my grandfather's bullock-cart ) and so on.

3. Were you rich or poor ?

We belonged to the middle class. Though my father was a teacher, I never experienced shortage of anything. The only thing I didn't like was using the cheapest toilet soap, viz. Lifebuoy or Hamam, as we could not afford any other.

4. How many siblings did you have ?

5. Was it tough being the youngest ?

Being the youngest in the family, I had to wear the discarded clothes of my brothers and serve them at times, though I was also pampered quite often. We used to buy one season ticket for test matches and I was always given the chance to see the fourth day's play and very often the match would be over on the fourth day. But still, I remember seeing one of the best innings by any Indian - Hanumant Singh's 97 against Australia in 1966.

6. Can you tell me about your education ?

It took me five long years to complete my degree. No, I didn't flunk at any time. In those days, B.E. degree was given after 17 years of education ( 11+1+5 ). Now you get the same ( perhaps better) degree after 10+2+4, i.e., 16 years of education. I was a bright, but lazy, student. Though I performed reasonably well in all exams, my grades in pre-university were extremely good, which enabled me admission in Madras itself. They also got me a scholarship of Rs. 100 per month for my entire degree course ( which was a princely sum in 1962, when 4 idlis and a cup of coffee was available for 30 paise). I had a few close friends like Pattabhiraman ( who unfortunately is no more ), Ramasubramanian , Nagarajan , Sampath and Raj Kumar. But I have lost touch with them except Ramasubramanian who is in railways. It was , however , a nice experience to meet my college classmates in 1992 after twenty five years.

7. Any particularly memorable experience ?

The three months after graduation was a memorable period. I visited Delhi, Bombay and Bangalore for interviews at the cost of prospective employers. For one who had not gone beyond Renigunta, it was a thrilling experience.

8. When did you start working ?

All good things had to end and I had to start working. I joined Chemplast on the production side in August 1967.

9. About your first salary ?

I received my first salary in September 1967 - a round sum of Rs. 250. I promptly bought a cake each of Maharani Sandal Soap and Pears soap, which were the costliest soaps then ( please see Q. 3 ) and continued to use these two soaps for a long time.

10. How was your life in Mettur ?

I enjoyed life in Chemplast, where we had our own cook and lived a royal life. We saw two films every week in the touring theatre nearby. I had to work in shifts - one week from 6.00 A.M. to 2.00 P.M. , the next week from 2.00 P.M. to 10.00 P.M. and the next week from 10.00 P.M. to 6.00 A.M. with the same cycle being repeated.

Once a month, 10 of us used to go to Salem, about 40 kms. away at 7.30 A.M. Even in those days, Salem had a large number of good hotels and theatres. We would have breakfast , see a morning show: have lunch, see a matinee show ; have evening snacks , see the evening show and return to Mettur after eating dinner. On a couple of occasions, we had even seen the night show before returning by the first bus next day.