Srinivasan

K Srinivasan: He got married to Viji 25 years ago in 1983 and even today I don’t claim to know where I stand with him or figured his personality. Sometimes he is too morose for speech and at times so loquacious that it does not add up. I guess such randomness runs in his family; all the 3 sons kept away from the father not out of fear or respect but a defect in the gene. The brothers themselves are not known to talk amongst themselves nor with the 2 sisters. But they ceremoniously get together for weddings, festivals, and even minor functions. Again something I can’t put a finger to except that side of the family is ritualistic to a sickening degree.

Srinivasan was a clerk in United Bank of India, a nationalized bank headquartered in Calcutta at the time of marriage in 1983. Almost predictably, Viji delivered a child inside the first year of marriage. Srinivasan is short at 5’6”, a small face with hair turned upwards for a bit of rock look, a long nose, fair “Brahmin” complexion, and conspicuous black rimmed spectacles. The jaws almost make a triangle for a distinct mould. Srinivasan can be full of gaiety and dry humour or switch to the morose look and crib about life in general.

He is another of those unfortunate men who signed off his freedom to his obese wife. He goes to the bank and works a full day quota, gets the pay packet, and surrenders it to his wife. He is no patience for planning expenses and what does the stupid wife do? Impute a miser reputation to him!i Maybe it’s got something to do with him switching off the room AC on waking up or changing TV channels when watching in a group.

He is quite adaptable for a simple, Brahmin boy who grew up in Madras. He endeared himself on a long stint at Kendrapara in Orissa that lasted 6 years before metro postings in Bangalore, Mumbai and now in hometown Chennai. Srinivasan is in his early 50s and yet he looks a schoolboy. He is as spry as a squirrel and can’t remain still; on Sundays he would clean the house or arrange old cupboards or nothing else dissemble the motorcycle and then learn to put it back. At Mumbai, he made it a habit of visiting Prabhadevi temple taking a bus from Santa Cruz almost every Sunday. That way, he is very religious and god-fearing.

There is a lot of feminine streak in him once he begins to complain. He is man of regular habits, and out of his comfort zone hopelessly lost. Even a small ripple can rattle him; at Mumbai one of his colleagues cheated the bank of over 25 lacs and there were thorough investigations. Srinivasan though his hands were squeaky clean lost sleep and peace so much so that this had become his obsession. He would ask in the manner of a child,” How can anyone not trust a colleague?” He was lost without his wife and only when she took up residence in Mumbai a year later after settling the children’s education that he breathed a sigh of relief. He believes her implicitly,” Had she been around, she would have spelt a rat from far”. He was proud of Viji’s sharp brain and her selfish self-possessive streak.

Srinivasan can be very witty at times. The way he analyzed Mumbai as a city or how the girls there dressed or how snotty women in ponytails running to climb a moving train can be hilarious. He is die-hard tamilian; he will only see those Crazy Mohan serials or anything dished in Sun TV. He is sleeps on the sofa and early to rise. He is the one to go out to procure the milk sachets or buy the day’s vegetables or the newspapers. The rest of the chores – children’s education, investing, major purchases are leased to his fat wife. Both the sons adore their mother more than the father since she relates better. This is one typical Tamil Brahmin family in which the lady dominates a very decent but docile man.

Post Script (2017): For a long time he used to say: Sathi, when are you going to win the Pulitzer award? He had a high regard for me before I lost it in the 2015-16 depression years.  Now retired he still goes to a 9 to 5 job working for an auditor at one-fifth his bank salary. He is an active man; can’t sit idle for gossip or television soaps. Both my brother-in-laws are weak men; they don’t spare a word on my suffering. Of course they have seen depression from close quarters; Srinivasan dad suffered for a decade but yet those lessons have not been learnt.  Both Srinivsan and Basker turn a blind eye to anything discomfiting; the pains of others don’t stick to them.

Verdict: Rajas

Lessons to be learnt:  A regular Johnny and no real passions or hobbies. Unlike Ramani, Srinivasan would not even make a good neighbour or colleague.