Krishnamurthi Balaji
Bangalore, Karnataka State , India
I am K.BALAJI, aged 62, living in Bangalore, India. Retired from The Hindu a couple of years back. Now enjoying my days of retirement, my hobbies being Browsing, hearing Music and reading books. My main interest is Carnatic Music and old film songs of all south indian languages and Hindi. My mother tongue is Tamil and I know Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam (to read and write too) and Telugu (to Speak) . When I write these lines about me, I am reminded of those few lines jotted by a very close friend of mine. He wrote about me so many years back and I feel it would not be out of place te reproduce here, a portion of the poem ! Here goes the same:
"My Friend Balaji,
The Bi-spectacled shy lad
Is one of the best friends I've had
In his quite unassuming way
His deeds coming more than he could say;
We all have our faults and are tempted,
And this green clad boy is not exempted
it's just that when he sings
More often than not I wince !
His greatest weakness if the Cinema
A thing which to me is an enigma!
He explains it as escapism
But secretly I think he likes them;
He sees them come one come all
In all seasons from Spring to Fall;
He has a flair for languages
And speaks about six of them
But has his fatal and stupid
Affection for Malayalam !
But in a few lines jotted like this
Definitely a lot will miss,
For to discribe and not to assume
One would require quite a volume;
The few words that I've said
Will be liked when they are read
By that nice quiet lad, for he
IS MY FRIEND B A L A J I ! "
---- (By V. Srinivasan on May 12 1980)