Born in Matunga, Mumbai (then Bombay) on April 2, 1953 to father Ramanujan Chari and mother Kalyani, Tamil Brahmins from Tanjavur, Seshadri Chari is one of five children. While his father worked for Sri Ram Mills and Hindustan Polymers, he was also active in the local Congress Party, it was his mother who had great influence on his growing years. A young Seshadri started going to RSS Shakha at an early age of four but became active only in his teens. As a Mukhya-Shikshak of a RSS Shakha largely attended by daily wage earners from Kerala, he was also active in the labour union led by CPM leader Ahilya Rangnekar. This association brought him close to Mr. Rangnekar and comrade B. T. Ranadive with whom he would engage in political and ideological discussions. One of his uncles S. T. Chary, who was a close associate of V.K Krishna Menon and an admirer of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, fine tuned his journalistic aspirations.
