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Summary

Balaji was my best teacher. He taught me how to ride a bike, play bridge and how to write sonnets. He taught me many aspects of science, mathematics, economics, politics, law, and history. He taught me compassion, kindness and generosity through his fine example. He had told me that had he not been a neurosurgeon, he would have liked to be a history professor.

Before Wikipedia, he was my Balaji-pedia – my instant source of reference and information on anything and everything. Our courtship days were full of delightful engaging discourses on diverse subjects late into the nights. Our 34 years together were filled with never-ending absorbing discussions and dinner conversations during which he happily shared and imparted his wealth of knowledge. He was a great source of enlightenment.

When the National Museum of Singapore was reopening in 2006 with a gallery on the History of Singapore, we spent many nights discussing Singapore's history. I had endless questions for him as I was a volunteer guide with the museums and was preparing to guide at this new gallery. He had, as was often, such an extensive knowledge on the subject that I suggested he write a book on the history of Singapore.

Some months later, he informed me that he was thinking of writing on the history of India. What a gargantuan task this would be, I thought out loud. But he had it all figured out. There would be five volumes, each with fifteen chapters. The first volume would start with ancient India till 1200 CE; Volume Two would cover the period when India was under the Muslim rulers; Volume Three when India was under the British; Volume Four on India's road to independence and Volume Five on post-independence India. When he retired, he would take a couple of years off to visit and take photographs of all the sites that he would describe in his book. He also dreamed of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) making it into a documentary and showing it as a daily or weekly series on the HISTORY channel, one of his favourite television programmes.

Balaji loved to read. He read children's books, comics, poetry, plays, scientific periodicals, economic and financial magazines, newspapers, fiction and non-fiction.