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)

  • Work
    • Retired from The Hindu Newspaper as Sr A R M
  • Education
    • B.A. in Economics with Commerce and Statistics (Class of 1971)