Major Influences in His Life

Though his essay into politics came to naught, it brought him into contact with many eminent persons. The well-known social activist Sahodaran Ayyappan was a benevolent influence on his life. The credit for Balakrishnan's first work, an anthology, goes to him.
He took over the bookshop called " Circle Book House" at Eranakulam boat jetty run by Vaikkom Muhammed Bashir(the well known Malayalam writer) and managed it for nearly 6 years till he joined as the Chief Editor of Malayalam daily Dinaprabha published from kozhikode on 28th July 1959. His skill with language soon saw to it that the bookshop was stocked with books from many well-known publishers. He used to subscribe to the best magazines at that time,' Encounter' being one of them. It will be needless to mention that his skill as a salesman was exceeded by his interest in reading the excellent books at hand. An avid reader of literary creations published from all over the world reading was his favourite past time. His favourite subject was history.