A friend whose mention is long overdue

He is none other than cartoonist Sajjive Balakrishnan popularly known as as Sajjive to his friends or "Fatso", who is a senior official at the Income Tax Department at Ernakulam. Apart from his skill as one of the best caricature cartoonists of our country today I also admire his writing skills. He has two blogs in Malayalam but I also wish he starts a blog in the English language for his fans. He is also a man who lives heartily, loves to eat and loves music too. He confessed how one day he woke up at 1.00 AM to finish off whatever food that was available in the kitchen and the on the dining table. As of now he gladly confesses there is no one heavier than him in the IT department in Ernakulam. Here is a caricature of myself, Chaithanya and Jaya that he did in 2005. It might have taken him just 10 minutes or less to complete.



Sajjive's wife Lekha is an accomplished singer who also sang for Illayaraja during her heydays. Two of her hits are: 1. "Vandhal Vandhal Rajakumari" from Bagyaraj's film "Oru Oorila Oru Raajakumari" and 2. "Ippo enna thevai, Thappa enna paarvai" from the Tamil movie "Makkal Atchi" starring Mammooty. I recall watching an old performance of Lekha's on the Malayalam DD channel and I couldn't help admiring and comparing her voice to that of veteran singer Vani Jayaram. If there is any singer whose voice can come close or resemble Vani Jayaram's voice it should be Lekha's. It is unfortunate she doesn't sing for movies any more.