[2] Alappat Sreedhara Menon was born on 18 December 1925 in Ernakulam, in the Kingdom of Cochin (British India).

In 1944, supported by a scholarship from the king of Cochin, he completed his Bachelor of Arts from the Maharaja's College, Cochin, winning the Karimpat Rama Menon Gold Medal and the Rama Varma Shashtiabdapurthi Memorial Prize for English.

He completed his MA in Political Science, specialising in International Relations from Harvard University in 1953 with the backing of a Fulbright travel grant and a Smith Mundt Scholarship.

[5] Menon received Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honour, for Literature and Education in 2009.

[6] In 1953, Sreedhara Menon was granted the Smith Mundt Scholarship and the Fulbright Travel Grant by the US Educational Foundation in India for higher studies at Harvard University where he obtained his master's degree in Political Science, specialising in International Relations.