STATE AWARD TO THE PIONEER OF VKV MOVEMENT IN THE STATE

The grateful state honoured the pioneer of VKV movement Shri. A.Balakrishnan with State Award for his excellent service for the Educational upliftment of State.

Shri. A.Balakrishnan is a real Karma Yogi who firmly believed in the dictum “Service to man is service to god”. His association with North-east began way back in the year 1974. Under the guidance of his mentor Man. Eknathji Ranadeji, Sri .BalaKrishnanji took up the responsibility of Vivekananda Kendra’s work in the north-east. The seeds that he has sown then have born fruits and have spread its branches all over north-east, giving solace and encouragement to large number of people in the Northeast in general, and Arunachal Pradesh in particular.

He is personification of love and loved the people of Northeast very dearly. When the first seven residential schools were planned he extensively toured all over the state to select the places. At many places, he has to walk long distances on foot and also even enjoyed the elephant raids to cross rivers during those days. In spite of topographic and terrain difficulties, lack of communication and other  related problems he could surmount them and could set up the first seven residential schools in the year 1977.

As a pioneer, he closely monitored the progress of each and every school from dawn to dusk, giving clear instruction to teachers. The standards he set during those days became the hallmark of VKV’s and are being retained even today creating niche for itself in the state and Vkv’s have become a household name in Arunachal Pradesh.

He had immense faith and trust in the teachers whom he had selected and he remained as a fatherly figure to all of them rather than an employer. His attitude that it is his responsibility, to look after the welfare of those teachers whom he had selected made the teachers to stick to the organization as true Karyakartas. He had so much love and faith on the students and even today he remembers the names of the students of those early years. His charisma and magnetism could attract people towards Kendra and could bring a cadre of good Karyakartas in to the fold of Kendra. By his humanistic approach, simple living, down to earth thinking could create a large number of well wishers all over the state. This further helped in the expansion of Vivekananda Kendra activities in Arunachal Pradesh.

Today with 33 schools in Arunachal with more than 13000 students in its rolls have transformed the socioeconomic and educational scenario of Arunachal Pradesh to a great extent and will definitely mould itself into a model state of Northeast in the days to come. No doubt, sri.Balakrishnanji has played a key role and will definitely look up as a fulcrum in Vivekananda Kendra’s work in the Northeast and as a harbinger of transformation in the state.