Sailor Krishnan

M C Krishanan: I first met Krishnan in 1998 soon after my heart surgery when I was in a phase of regular walks for an exercise. I would trek over 10 kms a day and it soon became a ritual as I discovered the beauty and tranquility of Theosophical Society. I soon joined a regular gang and the mornings were full of banter and bawdy jokes.

Krishnan is in his early 50s with a sailing experience of over 20 years. These sailors’ make a cool Rs.20 lacs in a year working for 6 months a year and the rest in complete idleness with little to engage them. This guy was enterprising with a couple of internet cafes and a 10 acre farm for paddy cultivation to keep him occupied when on land.

He is heavily built with handsome features: the eyes in sea water blue, a huge forehead, sculpted nose, and a majestic vestige for a personality. Wont to walk furiously in Bermuda shorts and the face shone brighter due to a dabbed vibhuti on a fair skin. He really looked as majestic a character from those Cecil De’Melle characters in the film “Moses”. He would by his sheer physique draw a crowd. And when he opened his mouth, he could raise a laugh with his earthy jokes in chaste Madurai Tamil in our group. He was a fun person to be and his jokes were ribald as can be. Sample this: When I married my wife and squeezed my wife’s boobs the first time, I washed my hands afterwards. But that doesn’t deter me from washing hands everyday!!!! Or when a singer sang on a high pitch he famously commented,” Her husband must be bitten her in various places and so the voice emanates deep from the abdomen”.  For his rich man, he was extremely modest and did not throw his weight around at all; in fact he made self-deprecatory jokes and kept everyone in good humour.

He really loved his life on the sea for most parts of the year. He would regale us with tales from the sea and it could get instructional at times. Once he said,” I was devoted to my wife with the chastity of Sita until the time she lost interest in sex. Only when I was 48, I discovered lust on the seas”. He would now only identify various ports with names of various women. “Oh my god, the Spanish women are the best in bed and they must all come to Madras and hold a training centre for our women”.

When I wanted to start an enterprise I turned to him. Though that venture failed miserably and there was a lot of bad blood, he is not the person you can avoid or be angry for long. Krishnan had this devastating wit about him. I was in his house when his schoolgoing daughter had an exam to crack. The father blessed her,” Sit behind the brightest of the lot and copy well”. His wife was one of the smartest I have seen and she can match wits with 10 men at one go and come out trumps.

Krishnan has done splendidly well family-wise; his eldest daughter is in USA from her under graduation days and now on the way to completing her Ph.D. This second daughter has just joined college and she is an accomplished Bharatnatyam dancer already with a gala “arangatram” last year. His assets must gross over 10 crores easily and given Krishnan’s affable nature and a nose of business opportunity, he can only add to the pile.

Krishnan loves Tamil literature and he would be engrossed on them on his sea voyages. He had a spiritual bent of mind and he could quote his “Thirukural” as good as the best. It is a pleasure to bang into him in a temple; a vesti and those vibhuti on a forehead never looked better.  

Verdict: Sattvic

Lesson to be learnt: Krishnan conceals a fantastic brain behind an affable nature.