Balachandran Chullikkadu

Balachandran was born in Paravur, Ernakulam, Kerala, India.[1] He completed his graduation in English literature from the Union Christian College, Aluva (first two years) and Maharajas College, Ernakulam.[2]

Balachandran Chullikkad

His collection of poems published are Pathinettu Kavithakal, Amaavaasi, Ghazal, Maanasaantharam, Dracula etc. A collection of his complete poems, Balachandran Chullikkadinte Kavithakal (The Poems of Balachandran Chullikkad, 2000) was published by DC Books, Kottayam, Kerala, India. They have also published the book of his memoirs, Chidambarasmarana (2001).

He has participated in many national literary seminars organised by Central Academy of Letters, India. He was one among the ten members of a cultural delegation of India to Sweden in 1997 invited by Nobel Academy and Swedish Writers Union. He represented Indian poetry in the international bookfair in Gotenborg, Sweden in November 1997.

Chullikkad is also an actor in Malayalam films and serials.[3][4] As an actor, he is best known for G. Aravindan's Pokkuveyil (1981) in which he played a young artist who lives with his father, a radical friend and a music-loving young woman. The film is about how his world collapses when his father dies, the radical friend leaves him and her family takes the woman away to another city.[5]

In 2018, he criticised the state education department for their incompetency in teaching Malayalam language, he urged to remove his peoms from curricula in schools, colleges and universities. Chullikkadu alleged that marks were being given in abundance for papers containing mistakes without proper evaluation, and the appointment of Malayalam teachers are not on the basis of qualifications, but caste, religion, political influence and nepotism. He said research work on Malayalam literature lack quality and that doctoral degrees were conferred on even those works which contain mistakes.[6][7]

Chullikkad is married to Vijayalakshmi, a known Malayalam poet and they have a son named Appu. He retired from Kerala State Government service on 31 July 2013.

In 2000, he took Buddhism as his religion.[8] He says that this cannot be called a conversion from Hinduism because he was never a follower of that religion. "I have not converted because I have not been a believer though I was a Hindu. I have now embraced Buddhism, not converted to Buddhism. The problem with Hinduism is that it is a religion of social status and set-ups. Your value in Hinduism depends on the family in which you were born," he says.[9]

• 2003 - National Film Award for Best Non-Feature Film Narration / Voice Over (Non Feature Film Category) for The 18 Elephants – 3 Monologues

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Balachandran Chullikkadu.

• Kavithakal (1 October 2015). "Balachandran Chullikkad - Poems - Yathramozhi". YouTube. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
• Manorama News (10 March 2017). "Balachandran Chullikkad in Nere Chowe - Part1". YouTube. Retrieved 22 January 2019.