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Indian music or culture with great felicity.

My seniors who thought nothing much of my effort did not
attach much importance to the permission granted to me to
appear in the Civil Services Examination and were wondering
if after all I would clear the hurdle of Personal Interview which
ultimately decided if someone would enter the service or not.
So with a view to deprive me of valuable time during recess
season my Director in Bangalore asked me to carry out a study
on uranium content in the ashes of Neyveli Lignite and gave me
marching orders to proceed to Neyveli in August 1962.For one
complete month I was sitting by the side of an electric furnace
which was turning the lignite to ashes. It was the idea to
analyze the ashes to see if it contained any trace of uranium!
Whether I could find uranium or not I succeeded in tracing long
lost family of my eldest cousin who was working as Office
Superintendent in Neyveli Lignite Corporation and I enjoyed
my stay with his family.

Again after clearing the written papers I was asked to
accompany another senior colleague to prospect for Uranium in
Gadwal in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh in addition to my
usual quota of field job. Only my senior Mr.K.Venkataraman
Senior Geologist who was my mentor in Neyveli was my

sympathizer and encouraged me in my efforts. So when I
cleared the oral interview also and found my name as one of
the successful candidates for Group A posts declared by the
U.P.S.C and saw it published my name as Bashyam Iyengar
Srinivasan I thought I did full justice to the honour of tagging
on my name to my father’s name also!

I clear the UPSC Examination:

So when I went to Madras to see my ailing grandfather my
father expressed happiness at my success in the UPSC selection
and urged me to go straight to Egmore where my grandfather
was on deathbed. Already my grandfather must have begun his
journey to the kingdom of no return when my grandmother on
seeing me whispered into my grandfather’s ears that his

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