Balakrishnan The Student

Learning started with first letters on sand spread out at Madhavan Asan’s Kalari (Kalari is where learning started in olden days under the guidance of an ‘Asan’= teacher). However the little student soon dropped out scared of the drunken teacher. His learning continued through the Sanmarga Pradeepika Sabha (SPS Primary)School, Lower Secondary School, and finally The Rama Varma Union High school (1940) in the neighbouring village of Cherai. His oratorical skills developed during this period. He was actively encouraged by his teachers. The headmaster K.C.Abraham or Abraham master (who later served as governor of Andhra Pradesh) and Alexander, the Malayalam teacher were tutors here with whom he maintained contacts and whom he remembered with great respect. He also read extensively on a level that far exceeded his age. He passed out of school with a gold medal and a scholarship for higher studies.
He shifted to Ernakulam and joined the Maharajas College for his higher studies. He selected science as his subject as he was told that it was the most difficult to study. He was very active in college. However, academic studies were last in his agenda. It was the time when the freedom movement had gathered momentum and there was no way the energetic youth could keep himself out of it. He whole-heartedly jumped into it. The involvement in quit India movement ended in jail. He used to say in private that the stay in jail as a class B detainee together with the sons of influential persons would have been enjoyable if only he could make his weekend trips home (it was his unfailing habit).Thus, his four eventful years in college ended without any qualification degree.