Great English writers have created characters who have made a greater impact on the reader than those authors themselves. Sherlock Holmes is more famous than Arthur Conan Doyle! Then there are Alexander Dumas’s D’Artagnan and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. But Oliver Goldsmith’s Beau Tibbs, in his book Citizen of the World, is a class apart.
Years ago, when we lived in Trivandrum, now Thiruvananathapuram, a relative of my grandmother used to visit and stay with us. He was Uncle Ramu. After the initial exchange of greetings with the family, he would start on his stories. Coming from Delhi, he dropped the names of politicians and top bureaucrats, the many evenings he spent at the Gymkhana Club or in their houses. He would refer to them by their first name.
We the youngsters and less-informed members of the family were no doubt impressed. Uncle Ramu felt delighted at the impression he had created in our minds. Sometimes, he would burst into Carnatic music and even western songs.
