Kasthuri Srinivasan was given the prestigious Padma Bhushan award for his outstanding contribution to the field of textile research in India.

K. Srinivasan was the iconic director of the Southern India Textile Research Association (SITRA), and was popularly known as SITRA Srinivasan. The textile industry was at its best during his times at Coimbatore. K. Srinivasan and his wife had a very nice private collection of art and textile-related items at their house in V. Palaniswamy Naidu Street, off Avinashi Road, in those days. Later on, he established a textile museum on Avinashi Road, which now houses all his collections, and organizes shows of upcoming artists.

K. Srinivasan was known to the world as a textile industry person. Not much known was his passion for literature. He was a well-read person who studied in the United Kingdom during the tumultuous war times of the twentieth century. The textile scientist has written a number of books that continue to fascinate not only the literary circles, but also the people of this region at large. In fact, he has left an endowment for granting prizes for authors excelling in Tamil.

His autobiography, ‘Climbing a Coconut Tree,’ is an excellent piece of work. K. Srinivasan talks about his childhood at his village home, off Trichy Road, on the eastern side of Coimbatore. His candid approach, when he talks about some of his family members, is very refreshing.

The book offers a powerful insight into his life and times. We learn that it was the Father of Modern Coimbatore – Diwan Bahadur C.S. Rathinasabapathy Mudaliar – who gave an excellent welcome-home banquet for him and his English wife on their return to India. He has written a book on Thirukkural too!

The book, ‘Cancer Made Me,’ is a wonderful work which speaks about the dreaded disease. Clubbing is another aspect that he wrote about, and the history of the Coimbatore Club in Race Course has been dealt with by him in the book, ‘Hundred Not Out.’ The book on the oldest club in Coimbatore talks about the origin of clubbing, and therefore, the birth of the institution in town. In those days, the club was an exclusive preserve for Europeans, and K. Srinivasan happened to be one of the earliest Indian members.

The simple expression, precise narration, and the liberal writing style of K. Srinivasan is enthralling. He was quite close to all the leading industrialists, and was on several committees relating to the textile industry. He has written several technical articles too, as a textile scientist and Director of SITRA.

K. Srinivasan’s quote, in one of his forewords, about the life and times of the statesman industrialist G.K. Devarajulu is fascinating. He says that decision-making is a process where one has to decide based on various factors like nature, finances, and market conditions, and carefully evaluating them all before making a decision. But, he adds that any delay in decision-making is a decision by itself. The words reflect profound wisdom based on experience and introspection.

Coimbatore was really lucky to have someone like K. Srinivasan among its list of illustrious residents.