Born in 1878, Menon was the second of four children and only son of Ambat Ikkali Amma and Champathil Nanu Mannadiar.

Menon was a founders and president of the Triplicane Urban Co-Operative Society in Chennai, the first consumer cooperative in India.

In 1936, when he was first elected to the Cochin Legislative Council from Mulakunnathukavu constituency, he retired from legal practice and settled down in Thrissur.

[1] Menon died due to cardiac arrest on August 30, 1938,[1] during an official visit to his hometown, Chittur.

They had six sons and three daughters: Sri Sankara Narayanan, Satyabala, Ananda Padmanabhan, Bhagyanathan, Swarna Kumari, Chandrasekharan, Sarojini, Sivaraman and Sivadas.