Rajaratnam studied at St. Paul's Institution and Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, and later at the Raffles Institution in Singapore. In 1937, he went to King's College London to pursue a law degree. However, due to World War II, he was unable to receive funding from his family to continue his studies; instead, he turned to journalism to earn a living. He met his wife Piroska Feher, a Hungarian teacher, while in London. In London, Rajaratnam also wrote a series of short stories which "The Spectator"'s J.B. Trend reviewed positively. Rajaratnam also gained the attention of George Orwell, who then worked in the Indian Section of the BBC’s Eastern Service based in London and recruited Rajaratnam to contribute scripts for the network. Rajaratnam's short stories and radio plays were later published by Epigram Books in "The Short Stories & Radio Plays of S. Rajaratnam" (2011).