Early Life
Vasan was born in the town of Thiruthuraipoondi in the Tanjore district into a poor Brahmin family. While his official date of birth is listed as 10-03-1903, according to his family, he was born on 4 January 1904. Vasan's father died when he was two years old and his mother Balambal went to live with her father in Thiruthiraipoondi from the village of Narimanam where her husband's family lived and raised her son as well as her own siblings. She was a scholar of Sanskrit and would tutor children and people in the village in addition to making special confectionaries for festive occasions - this was how she supported her ailing widowed father, toddler son and her siblings closer to her son's age. She inspired ambition and strength in her son and to fulfill her desire, he came to Madras in 1917 to study in Pachaiyappa's college. While in College, he would hawk watches and goods on the railway platforms to send back money to his family in the village. He also simultaneously started writing articles for local magazines, translating foreign novels into Tamil and publishing them as well as started one of the first mail order businesses in India. An example of an advertisement of that time would read "Send Rs 1 and receive 32 imported articles" - these would consist of various trinkets and things from England like even bobby pins, but was wildly successful across the state. This made him successful enough to bring his family from the village and at which time he got married to the dynamic Pattamal Vasan who was a huge support and reason for his continued path of success. Due to pressure from his mother and the fact he was now married, he applied for a clerk's job with the Madras and South Mahratta Railway but could not save enough money for the safety deposit required due to extraneous circumstances. It was a blessing in disguise because if this had happened, it could have cut short the success of this media baron in later years. It was at this time that his success in advertising drew attention from other local businesses and prompted him to begin an Ad agency, one of the first in India run by an Indian.
Read more about this topic: S. S. Vasan
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