Like with most small-town celebrities, there are dozens of apocryphal stories, embellished with each telling, about Javagal Srinath. There is one about how, when he was a little cricketer in Mysore, the seniors in the team would stuff his pockets with 'upma', so that the boy who bowled well but disliked fielding would not get bored at long-leg. And then there is another about how he turned up late for a match because he was having an "oil bath", complete with the 'shikakai' powder his father manufactured.