In 1952, when Tyagarajan (he had not yet assumed the pseudonym of Ashokamitran) left Secunderabad where he was born, grew up and spent the first 20 years of his life, he thought it was going to be a clean break from the past. The last few years here had been so full of political and social turmoil and had caused him such disillusionment and anguish, he probably welcomed the shift to another city. For many years after that, Hyderabad and Secunderabad were farthest from his mind. Seventy-two years old now and many decades and writings later, he can now, however, assert that the place and the people he encountered here had a shaping influence on him. In fact, he is yet to exhaust the creative possibilities they have been offering him.