Thettalil Parameswaran Pillai Sreenivasan (born 17 June 1944 in

Kayamkulam Kayamkulam () is a municipality in the Alappuzha district of Kerala, India. It is located south of the district headquarters in Alappuzha and about north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. As per the 2011 Indian census, Kayamkulam has ...

Travancore The kingdom of Travancore (), also known as the kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor () or later as Travancore State, was a kingdom that lasted from until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvanan ...

) is an Indian former diplomat and is the head of the Council for Higher Education of the State of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

and also an adjunct professor of eminence at

Somaiya Vidyavihar University Somaiya Vidyavihar University is a private university located in the Vidyavihar suburb of Mumbai, India. Established in 2019, it offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs in various fields, including arts and humanities, science and techn ...

Career and life

Sreenivasan was born in

as the son of K. Parameswaran Pillai, a school teacher and N. Chellamma. After school and studies at University College, part of the

University of Kerala University of Kerala (formerly known as University of Travancore) is a state-run public university in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, India. It was established in 1937 by a promulgation of the Maharajah of Travancore, Chithi ...

, in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

, he joined the

Indian Foreign Service The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is a diplomatic service and a Central Civil Services, central civil service of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India under the Ministry of External Affairs (India), Ministry of External A ...

(IFS batch, 1967). He is alma Mater of Government Boys' Higher Secondary School, Kayamkulam. He was secretary of legation third class in Tokyo and legation secretary first class in

Thimphu Thimphu (; ) is the capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's '' dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient capital city of Punakha was replac ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

. From 1975 to 1977, he was secretary of legation first class in Moscow. From 1986 to 1989, he was Indian High Commissioner in

Suva Suva (, ) is the Capital city, capital and the most populous city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rew ...

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

and responsible for seven other island nations in the South Pacific. From 1992 to 1995, he was the Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the UN in New York; from 1995 to 1997, he assumed the office of the Indian High Commissioner in Nairobi, Kenya and served as Permanent Representative of the Government of India at the United Nations Office at Nairobi. From 1997 to 2000 he was Deputy Ambassador in Washington, D.C. From 2000 to 2004, he was Indian Ambassador in Vienna for Austria and Slovenia, as well as Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna. He retired 30 June 2004. Sreenivasan was the head of the Council for Higher Education of the State of Kerala and executive vice president with the rank of vice-chancellor. He has continued as a columnist for a variety of newspapers and magazines (se
Rediff archive
, as is the nonfiction author of autobiographical works to his 37-year diplomatic career. He had been married to Lekha Sreenivasan, a

Bharatanatyam ''Bharatanatyam'' is a Indian classical dance form that came from Tamil Nadu, India. It is a classical dance form recognized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas of Hinduism and Jainism.< ...

dancer and teacher, from 1968 until January 2023, when she died. The couple had two sons.

Books

* ''Encounters.'' Rhythm House, Selangor, Malaysia 2007, . *
Words, Words, Words. Adventures in Diplomacy.
' Pearson Longman, Delhi 2008, . * ''Mattering to India. The Shashi Tharoor campaign.'' Pearson, Delhi 2011, . * ''Applied diplomacy. Through the prism of mythology.'' Wisdom Tree, New Delhi 2014, .

References

1944 births Living people High commissioners of India to Fiji High commissioners of India to Kenya Ambassadors of India to Austria Ambassadors of India to Slovenia Permanent representatives of India to the United Nations Office in Vienna University College Thiruvananthapuram alumni {{India-diplomat-stub