So many eminent people have said so many great things about SK, he has been felicitated so much, has won so many awards, has published so many books, has been instrumental in encouraging and promoting careers of so many young aspirants within the family and outside the family, what else can I add that can increase the aura around him even by a watt, an aura which is already glowing at 1000 watts. Such is the glory of this man whom I was fortunate enough to call my father-in-law.

My association with SK goes back decades when I was around 10 and was on my first visit to Shimoga.

He was ever popular, a charismatic individual always in demand both by Srikant thatha as well as by other members of the household. In the morning I used to see him open the shed and leave in his small but neat looking fiat to his office on Nehru road.

That month he was going for an audit to Agumbe and Mangalore and told my mother I could accompany him. I just piled on next morning as he drove to Mangalore. Beautiful drive on roads with trees on either side with low hanging jack fruits. The term low hanging fruits that is used so often in today’s corporate world, I realized later, must have been created by someone who had driven on those roads. Once he went to the office for his real purpose of the visit, we waited outside and drove back in the evening.

Natarajan went abroad and had brought Scrabble: SK and brothers used to play till the wee hours of the morning and I used to sit and watch the fun. There were people who were happy to form 3 letter words like FUN or CAR and be happy with the double letter score on one of the letters but not SK. He used to keep exchanging one or two tiles and skip his turn. Obviously for a while the rest did not understand his strategy, he was so far ahead of the rest. He knew he would make a killing with a seven letter which provided a 50 point bonus. Needless to say, SK most of the times used to be # 1.

Shimoga Subbannah: used to be work in his office but many a times would be at home and there would be great music with Jagadishan chiming in with his impromptu alaaps. SK never used to dabble in music but you could discern his keen sense of music and his ability to appreciate and encourage good music.

Trouble in paradise: he developed a back ailment and was advised that only cure without a surgery was to lie flat till he got cured. I think he was lying flat for close to two years and I used to hear from my mother that the mood in the entire family was very somber. Through all this, his output was still as high as ever, as high as to prior to getting sick. Slowly he regained his health and after that, I remember when there was pankthi sappad, he alone used to be sitting on a table, the rest on the ground.

My IIM days: one fine morning I received a strange letter from IIM B saying ‘you are on the active waiting list but if you are working, please resign your job’. Talk about effective communication from one of the premier management institutes in India. I called SK and read out the letter and asked him if he could help translate it into English. He spoke to IIM office, to Vatsala Nagrajan who was Rajaji’s granddaughter and his great friend and confirmed that it was a firm offer. He used to often visit the institute as a guest lecturer invited by Vatsala Nagrajan and other eminent professors like Prasanna.

His Mumbai visits:

I used to meet SK whenever he visited Mumbai to be with HSN or Natarajan and he used to come home. SK was always the quietest in the crowd, always smiling.

The fab 5: SK, Seshadri, Jagadisha, Natarajan and Mouli were a great combination for humor. In all family functions, there used to be a crowd around these five where Sesh used to be providing his palm mystery gyan to everyone who cared to listen. SK used to comment over the years that his prediction for everyone used to be the same and have a quiet laugh.

One could write a book on SK’s accounts of Sivasmay thatha’s idiosyncrasies. One of the incident was that thatha found some coins missing from his box and this was happening consistently. So he hid himself under the table and one day caught the miscreant. SK used to relate this with a lot of embellishments and also the way thatha used to eat dumroot hiding it behind his back without offering to the person who had come to buy carbon. Another famous one was thatha used to lend money to film distributors. He used to lend after the movie was made and the distributor wanted money for publicity. If there was delay in the payment, thatha used to go to hotel Ashok or wherever they were staying dressed in veshti and banian and ask for the money in front of his friends and family to embarrass him thoroughly. Needless to say they used to pay him off so that they don’t see him again only to go back to him for the next movie. He stayed with thatha when he was doing CA and they were very close.

Marriage: my marriage got fixed all of a sudden. I came back from the US, went to Hong Kong and China and came back to fly to US the next day but could not since it was a good Friday and could not get my visa. I was supposed to have spent a week in Hong Kong with TRR to help him assemble his PC  but I was told to rush to Mumbai only to be told later I need not have rushed. Anyway, I got hooked to Vasu and flew to US that night. As always was lost in my own world when out of the blue HSN flew into Baltimore and stayed with me for a day. Later I found out it was to check on me as to my habits but he found out that I was as much a thayir saadam as he was and all was well. I never communicated much during the one year which hurt SK and I regretted it. I came to Bangalore, the marriage went off smoothly but he was hurt and I tried my best to make up for lost time. I think I was successful because we became the best of friends and I used to say ‘inter alia’ meaning I was his best alia which also is latin for ‘among other things’ which he often used in his legal writings. He used to like my jokes a lot and used to note them down to be used in his speeches. When I was in Basavanagudi, I used to be up early and I used to cherish the early morning conversation with him at 6 am with a cup of steaming hot coffee and the morning papers. Will miss those meetings, never to come back.

After having seen life, I can unequivocally say what he has achieved only very few can do. He is no less than an ‘Avatara purushan’. People make money, build houses, support big families but he was one of a kind. There used to be galatta and chaos in the living room but he will be in the office room talking to his clients and explain the most complex tax matters in simple terms. His tax suggestions had a positive ‘outcome tax’ to offset the ‘income tax’ and the clients always went away richer and happy knowing fully well that the money that they got back was legitimate, that was due to them.

When he as Chicago, two of my professional friends who were CEOs in Indian companies met him and both signed him as the auditor for their company then and there. He’s the auditor for one of them even now after 25 years. All our friends here whom he has met remember him fondly and with love and affection. I don’t think God can create another SK. God will try but will soon realize it’s not possible to create another SK, the Great SK.

Will be cherished forever and missed forever.