“He was so friendly and gregarious,” one who knew him later in Madras would say of him. He was “always so full of fun, ever punning on Tamil and English words, telling jokes, sometimes long stories, and going into fits of laughter when relating them. His tuft would come undone and he would try to knot it back as he continued to tell the story.” Sometimes he’d start laughing before reaching the punch line, garble its telling, and have to repeat it. “He was so full of life and his eyes were mischievous and sparkling. . . . He could talk on any subject. It was hard not to like him.”
