I was born in the remote village of Kallapuram in the district of Alappuzha in Kerala, the southernmost state of India. My father, the late Havildar G. Chellappan Pillai, was a soldier in the Indian Army of British India. Born as the eldest son, I have three sisters younger to me. Though my mother, K.C. Chellamma, conceived me in British India, I was born on the 18th of November 1947 in Independent India. My interest in the Sanskrit language got deep-rooted because of my education under this great Sanskrit scholar. This influence continued to keep me in touch with ancient Indian Sanskrit books on the Vedas, Shastras, Astrology, Astronomy, the great epics of Mahabharata, Bhagavatham, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, etc., besides the great Sanskrit literature of writers like Kalidasa. My higher education from 1963 to 1969 was in Trivandrum, the capital city of Kerala. After my post-graduation, I joined a college in the remote village of Basudevpur, in the state of Orissa, and worked for three years there. In 1972, I shifted to Madras (now Chennai), in the state of Tamil Nadu.