Endless awesome and pride!

Endless awesome and pride!

It was a long time wish to meet Balaji sir. It can also be called a dream because it has been going unfulfilled for a long time. Now that wish has been fulfilled. That dream has been fulfilled.

There is no difference between what I saw Balaji Sir then and what I see today. I was under the preconception that he would have been fat. My assumption was crushed by the initial appearance.

Not just in appearance? There is no change in speaking, socializing, and inquiring. I was shocked for a minute that the philosophy of change is the only thing that unchangeable has been lost on him.

The tablets in his library were telling me that my only prediction that too much honesty and principled behavior would lead to hypertension was true.

How can a man live without change? It is only when you are on the wrong path that you need to change to the right path. His energetic speech and laughter were teaching me a lesson again, as if he was telling me what change is waiting for him who is on the right path.

How many students will chance to see a teacher's wedding? I had that chance. Balaji sir had invited me to his wedding. I think I had completed twelfth standard then. That was the last time I saw him before.

Balaji Sir cannot be surpassed in reading. Even at this age of over fifty, he looks like a young man. If he and I were to stand side by side there was a risk that I would be perceived as old and he as younger than me. He is still reciting with the vigor of a young man.

If my teacher and I were to have a competition in reading, I would say that he is running at the speed of a hare and I am running at the speed of a tortoise.

After reading for so many years, one must get bored. More and more, he talks and shares about reading. Reading has become his breathing. He loves reading like breathing.

If you search for 'Karuppampulam Balaji' on Facebook, you will find a lot of information about him. How much field work, academic work, social work. All this is possible only if every day is dedicated to those tasks.

He is associated with all literary organizations around Vedaaranyam. He is friendly with all the literary personalities. Attends literary meetings. He also organizes literary gatherings at his home.

Many first edition Tamil books are in his library collection. He has many ancient bookss in his possession. He keeps the entire upper floor of his house as an archive containing rare books.

He has also set up classroom libraries in his classroom. He comforts the books as a guide not only for school students but also for research students.

He instills the love of nature in the students by inculcating interest in growing saplings. He teaches the students to love life by giving them photography equipment and making them take pictures of rare species.

The awe of teachers during the student period goes away after passing that period. My awe of Balaji sir is still growing. I think that his constant reading and unfailing love of teaching continue to increase my awe.

After completing his teaching certificate training, he appeared for Tamil Nadu Government Civil Service Commission examination and joined Pullambadi Panchayat Union as a junior assistant in 1994. He joined Pullamangalam in 1995 as a secondary grade teacher the following year. He worked in Pullamangalam for eleven years and then worked in Thirumarukal and Thakattur schools and in 2008 he joined Kariyapatnam as a Tamil teacher. Since 2017, he has been working as a teacher at Karuppampulam School, where he was born and grown.

He must have a pride in his heart to see me as a teacher after seeing him as a student. I am even more proud to see the teacher I saw then, in appearance, speech, manners, and work, still the same today.

Balaji sir also has the social anger of Bharathi and Jayakanthan. Even now he is reading and enjoying  Valluvar and Kambar.

Then Balaji sir was actively reciting a collection Tamil poems. I still remember thinking that I wanted to read like him. Even now when I see Balaji sir, the same memory comes back. It seems that this memory cannot be changed in my life. It is said that if the mother jumps eight feet, the cub should jump sixteen feet. But my pride and awe of Balaji sir will remain the same as I am still a four-feet jumper. Even if time gives me the power to jump sixteen feet a day, I will never lose that pride and awe. Because then he would be a thirty-two foot jumper.

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