Being around zestful people

Created On: 3 April 2025 6:16 AM IST

While on the subject of extroverts, who are zestful and jovial, one can hardly do better than recall the unforgettable characters created by one of the greatest storytellers of all time, P G Wodehouse, rightly referred to as the ‘Performing Flea’ of English literature. While there are any number of them in his close to hundred novels, the name of Lord Ickenham, also known as Uncle Fred, comes to mind

The zest for life, or as the French would put it, ‘La joie de vivre’, is a quality, much like greatness, which some people are born with. While others achieve it, another category has it thrust on them. As for as I am concerned, I have no pretensions to being an extraordinarily gregarious or outgoing person. I must, however, admit to having been born to, and brought up in, an ambience that encouraged me to remain cheerful, contented, and enjoy making others happy. In what follows, I have made an attempt to capture the essence, of the personalities of some of my friends, and famous persons whom everyone has heard of.

As a young man studying for his law degree in Chennai, my father was a somewhat frail and shy person. He suffered from a rare condition called sprue and was an impatient and somewhat irritable person. My mother was a young and inexperienced wife just beginning to learn the intricacies of running a home, and living with a husband whom she had yet completely to understand. Father had this habit of sitting cross-legged, on a mat on the floor, for his studies. Once, when mother approached him with a cup of coffee and left it on the mat and walked away quietly, lest she would disturb him, father got infuriated that the coffee had turned cold by the time he noticed it. The next time around, when mother brought the coffee and asked father to drink it, he shouted at her asking how dared did she disturb him! Even in his profession, as an advocate and, later on as a judge, father continued to be quick and sharp, with his clients and the advocates arguing in his courts. One heard, with a great deal of amusement, stories of how he would throw away the papers pertaining to a client’s case, merely because the client attempted to clarify a point. And, about his time as a judge, a senior advocate once famously remarked, that no one need argue in Justice Bhimasankaram’s Court, as he, himself, conducted the arguments, for both parties, on his own!

The same man, elderly, and retired, was a transformed personality altogether. As one of my uncles put it, if he was frustrated and furious earlier, he had mellowed into a mellowed and mature influence later, known for his knowledge and extraordinarily good nature. His razor, sharp wit and biting satire, only added to the entertaining company, which proved to be, to his friends, relatives, and family members.

Another person whom I have always regarded as a role model was my maternal uncle Suryanarayana. Known as Abbai to family, and Suri to friends, he was an exceptionally outgoing, outspoken, boisterous, cheerful and infectiously happy person. It used to be said, in fact, that as they entered Guntur town, where he was working for a tobacco company, people would go cock their ears to check whether they could hear his loud laughter from the Officer’s Club, before deciding whether to go there or not! No one would have guessed, that he was all this, in spite of being a childless man, something which he decided to treat as a quirk of fate, not to be allowed to affect his personality.

Another wonderful person, of the same genre, whom I had the honour and privilege of knowing since my childhood, was Dr S K Rau. Hailing from Kakinada, and having got into the IAS in its very first batch after the ICS had been discontinued and yielded place to the new service, he had a misleadingly self-effacing demeanour. Also another childless couple, he, and Mrs. Rao, were extraordinarily gracious hosts and equally ready to accept invitations from friends and relatives. Having served as a Secretary to the Government of India, he not only bagged a position in the Asian Development Council at Tokyo, but also nearly won the election for President of that institution, missing the honour narrowly. With great respect and affection, I continue to regard him as one of the important persons who, in my formative years, substantially contributed to what I was to become later on in life.

My friend from childhood, Ranga, (as he is known to his friends), is an interesting person who deserves richly to be included in this discussion. He has the grit and gumption to overcome challenges and remain full of bonhomie. He has only recently, overcome a Covid – 19 infection, a surgery of the prostate gland, and a nervous disability caused by an injury in his neck, which affected the mobility of the fingers of his palm. Still, he never, says no to a request for him to host a card game for childhood friends, or to attend a function or dinner outside. Those afflictions notwithstanding, he had the determination, and zest to travel to strange destinations, such as Alaska and Istanbul, entirely out of a desire to make the best use, of the remaining years of his life. Along with his wife, Anu, one would be hard to find a better couple to visit for tasting the warmest of hospitality and the choicest of food or to invite, for electrifying a party at home.

Lord Ickenham is a tall, slim, distinguished, looking man with a jaunty moustache and an alert and enterprising mind. His hilarious and incredible episodes include once shooting his gardener in the trousers seat with a bow and arrow and shooting an old classmate’s hat off with a Brazil nut, with the precision of an Amazonian Hunter, not to mention happily breaking up an engagement between a nephew with an unsuitable girl. One of his main talents is impersonation. In different stories, he masquerades as variously a psychiatrist and an Army Major, who is a famous explorer. At the beginning of one book, Ickenham is accused by a young American with the question, “I say, aren’t you Lord Ickenham”? When Ickenham confirms that he, in fact, is the one in question, the young man says, “Fine.” Rather curious at the cryptic remark, Ickenham jovially enquires, “I am rather pleased about it myself, but why do you rejoice”?

(The writer was formerly Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)