Praveen Balachandran

I don't remember the first time i saw Praveen. He was not there in my Class 2 A group photograph. So may be he joined school later than that or he was in a different division - class 2B. At Class 4 we were together; with Sister Rose Mary being the class teacher. Sister Rose Mary believed in relationships; and may be in jest; she did a good job of pairing up the boys and girls in the class to sit together. The reason she quoted Praveens' getting paired up with Swapna was that they look lovely as a couple. Now looking at that class 4 photograph, she was right. Praveen and Swapna were two of the best looking people in their respective genders and am sure he did start creating a flutter in innocent 9 year olds in blue skirts, pig tails, pony tails and white ribbons.

Praveen's house was on the way to school. In Hill View Colony. The house had a rear entrance that was accessible from the road and the main entrance that one had to go through their colony for. Every morning, i would sneak in; through the rear entrance. For a reason that I still don't know of, I avoided the main entrance through the colony road. Even after 1 year of daily visits, his mother would open the door with a smile; to let in a nine year old; who increasingly thought it was his right to be let in. I also remember Praveen's uncle, who was his college's star in Volley ball and could actually jump and touch the ceiling of the house that was 10 feet high (Wow!!).

Now I don't even know why I used to visit his house. The only reason I remember, which was valid for a short time, was television had just arrived Calicut in 1984 and we still had not bought one. The Indian Cricket Team was in Australia to play the Benson & Hedges World Series of Cricket. It was the first time cricket was played in coloured clothing and India had Blue and Yellow. The regular morning starts in Australia meant a start at about 4:30 am India time. By the time I was in Praveen's house at 8:00 am or so (20 minutes ahead of my usual visits) ; the match would be interestingly poised.

At school, the guava tree in the left end of the playground was a hang-out point. Coming to think of it, Presentation High school had the ambience of a resort. There Praveen, with roots in Vadakara would argue why Vadakara was the best place to be. It seems so, that majority of Volley Ball payers in the Kerala state team was from Vadakara, and it seems so was Thacholi Odenan, the great hero of Malabar folk songs. The rest of the gang would not refute. One, his uncle was a volley ball player. So we presumed that what Praveen said about Volly ball was correct. Two, none of us knew the origins of Odenan, so we gave it to him.

I moved to Silver Hills after standard 5 and Praveen joined two years later. Silver Hills had a strong migrant population from Presentation (not Presentations' fault. But boys were not allowed in Presentation after standard 7), so getting imbibed was not an issue for Praveen. By now he was a member of the Under-12 Kerala State team for cricket; and was at the age of 13, also getting considered for the Under 15 team. Cricket took care of fans and admirers among all sections of the society

Maybe it is because of Praveen that I had the courage to ask Amma for permission to go to school in my bicycle, and it was definitely because of Praveen that I changed my bicycle handle from a standard one to a sporty one. All that resulted in our being a band of boys who travelled 14 odd kilometers every day, to and fro, on their bicycles - Mathew, Prameesh and sometime Biju MV were to join in.

The last I met him was in 1991. The tenth standard exams (that happened in March) results were out in May. Praveen had done very well and he would also have extra marks given by the education department because he represented the state in Cricket in January. Then I heard that he was in Kolar for his under graduation studies. then came the dark ages (when letter writing as an activity was on the decline; when there were no mobile phones; when the phones mentioned in school facebooks did not exist anymore and of course no Internet). Little did I know he worked two blocks away from my favorite pub in Bangalore for almost 2 years.

And in 2007 when I was inducted into Presentation's newly created e-group; a casual glance at some of the earlier mails had a subject "where is Praveen Balachandran???". No marks for guessing the gender of the enquirer. It had to be from an old classmate who was once in blue skirt, white shirt and pigtails