[3] He is remembered for his character sketches and short essays on personalities and issues of national & international import, in his weekly column "Varada Vyakthi" (Kan: ವಾರದ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ).

S. K. was born to a Tamil brahmin family in the village of Haleyuru near the picturesque tourist locale of Chunchanakatte in K. R. Nagar taluk of Mysore district, India.

During the next three years of his L. Com studies at the Central College, H. S. K. scored good marks and thus secured free boarding at the Ramakrishna Student Home (as a scholarship).

[6] He completed his Bachelor's degree in Economics & Commerce studies in 1948 and joined National High School, Bangalore as a teacher.

Around this time, Banumaiah College, Mysore invited H. S. K. to join its faculty in the department of Economics & Commerce.

At the behest of Prof D. Javaregowda, H. M. Nayak and then Vice Chancellor Srimali, H. S. K. was invited to grace the post of Editor of Humanities Division of the "Kannada Encyclopedia Project" at University of Mysore.

While majority of his writing is essentially biographical in nature, he also experimented with poetry, novels, short stories, economic treatises and socio-political caricatures.

These appeared under the banner of "Varada Vyakthi" (Kan: ವಾರದ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಿ - "Person of the Week") columns in the popular "Sudha" Kannada magazine.

These character sketches were collected into four volumes (as omnibus editions) under the titles: "Belaku Chellida Baduku",[14] "Manyaru Samanyaru", "Gaganachukki Barachukki" and "Minchu Gonchalu".

[7] His collection of articles on the literature of the Haridāsas - a sect in Vaishnavism was published by Maṅgaḷa Bhāratī Prakāśana as "Dāsa Sāhitya Darśana" in 1984.

[28] H. S. K.'s first novel "Mukti Marga" captured the challenges faced by a young idealist who returns to his native village with hopes of developing it.

His next novel "Bayakeya Belè" dealt with the challenges and aspirations of a princely state (like Mysore) emerging out in the post-independence years.

H. S. K. tried his hand at Kannada poetry and brought out collections of poems under titles - "Davanada Kone"[29] (1989) and "Tingalurina Teru" (2001).

[34][35] Six decades of writing,[1] over a thousand biographies and character sketches,[43] essays, anthology of poems, novels and short stories and small treatises on economics and commerce related matters made H. S. K. a household name in Kannada literary and journalistic circles.