The decades-old stage at the Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School was where a young Balabhaskar first began showing hints of his precocious talent, to a limited audience of his teachers and friends. On Saturday evening, some of those teachers and classmates of the 1993-94 batch joined there to remember the musician who passed away this Tuesday, following a road accident.
Soorya Krishnamurthy reminisced the day when Balabhaskar’s uncle B. Sasikumar introduced the boy to him as a prodigy, and told him that he is not getting opportunities to justify his talent.
“One of the first opportunities I got for him was an assignment to compose music for a television serial. Later, I included him in the ‘Pranamam’ mega show during which he presented a great fusion piece. We travelled to venues across the world with that show. It was his first overseas tour too. He stuck to Carnatic violin for several years, before switching to fusion. It was because I realised his talent that I asked him to compose the theme music for the Soorya festival,” he said.
Child prodigy
Parvathipuram Padmanabha Iyer, who was the music teacher at the school during that time, said that he was amazed by the talent in Balabhaskar at such a young age.
“There was this small room near the canteen, which used to be the music room. Balu would bunk some of his classes to practise violin there. I would ask him to play some pieces. It is not so easy for someone of that age to play the kind of pieces he played. Part of the credit has to go to his uncle and guru Sasikumar. Even with that talent, he was down to earth. He always had a smile on his face,” he said.
Abraham Joseph, the Principal during that period, said he was not sure whether they provided enough encouragement to someone with such a rare talent.
