Remembering The man who could never say no

Arun Vasu, whom I have known from the time I was a cherubin kindergarten, his older brother Arvind and I being classmates, called the other day to say that a two-day event is being planned at the Music Academy, to mark 20 years of his father T.T. Vasu’s passing. That brought to my face a smile and to my mind vivid memories of Vasu himself. He was one of the most colourful personalities I have known. Not perhaps the most practical person, and certainly difficult to bear if you annoyed him, his vocabulary being of the chaste Madras Bhashai variety, but certainly a most lovable human. 

My earliest memories are of attending birthday parties of his sons at his Cathedral Road residence. To a child, he was an enormously tall man, with a booming voice and a ready grin. It was only later that I got to know of his T.T.K. lineage. S. Muthiah, who knew him intimately, filled me in on many aspects of Vasu. And I consider the biography of his that Muthiah wrote and titled, The Man Who Could Never Say No, to be among the finest in its genre. Vasu was brought to life, warts and all, by Muthiah, as only he could. 

The youngest son of T.T. Krishnamachari and Rajalakshmi, Vasu lost his mother when he was very young. His upbringing was largely left to an indifferent grandmother. To Vasu, his father was his idol but T.T.K., busy with his public career, could not care less. All of this in Muthiah’s opinion, left a mark on Vasu. 

Having graduated, Vasu joined the family enterprise of T.T.K. & Co, and was hugely instrumental in setting up many of its businesses, including Prestige and the London Rubber Company. The ease with which he made friends, and established contacts in all rungs of society, made it easy for him to get enterprises going, in an era when the licence-quota raj was at its height. Today, all of this would be called networking but Vasu bonded with genuine affection. And he expected the same from those with whom he bonded. And he was hurt many a time for this naïve faith. Not that he changed. 

But once a business started functioning, he never focused on it and would move on. And that created its own set of problems. But certainly, the number of businesses he was involved in, for his family and also for friends, is legion. Not many may be aware that the Adyar Gate Hotel, later Welcomgroup Park Sheraton and later Crowne Plaza of late lamented memory, was his brainchild. Its Dakshin, which he conceptualised with his cook, still functions. The Iyer’s trolley there commemorates his cook.

A patron of many charities

A huge fan of Errol Flynn, Vasu established a club for the former’s fans in Madras. His efforts to learn Carnatic music may not have come to much, but his years as the Music Academy’s President will always be remembered and bring a smile. He was enormously encouraging of the Youth Association for Carnatic Music (YACM), which did much to popularise the art in the 1980s and 1990s. Generous to a fault, Vasu was a patron of many charities, and the proceeds from this two-day event will go to the Balamandir Kamaraj Trust, of which he was president for long. It champions the cause of disadvantaged children all over the State. 

The two-day event, on July 5 and 6, at the Music Academy, features L. Subramaniam and Ambi Subramaniam on July 5, and T.M. Krishna on the next day.

(V. Sriram is a writer and historian)