VKT Balan: entrepreneurial tycoon of Tamil Nadu | Eternal Engineers Blogs

    In 1981,A 27 year old youth abandoned his hometown owing to age long social atrocities prevailed in that era, reached Chennai Egmore Railway station ticketless with a dream of becoming an icon in the celluloid world, shared the platform with many homeless, poor, rickshaw drivers and burglars!

    VKT Balan, the founder of Madhura Travels in Chennai, remembers his early life to a youtube channel. His only possession was dhoti and a shirt that he wore. He studied with the aid of government’s primary education system. He vowed that he would not do any work that affects his self respect and left to Chennai ticketless, without acknowledging his parents. He pleaded for many odd jobs in hotels and travel agencies and could not settle in anything, and he was forced to settle in the pedestrian platform.

    His condition deeply worsened as the days passed. He also recalls his down-turned life sleeping in a platform with deep anxious, prolonged starvation, slightly triggered and  straightened by a policeman, who also named  Balan. He remembered that day a policeman woke up him and bet him harshly and asked his name. He replied his name. The policeman fumed how dare he could say his name, who himself Balan. Deceived by fate’s play, he was beaten furiously in his face and he was asked to stand in a line of many other homeless. Knowing that he would have taken for false charges, he ran as fast as he could to save his life from false accusations for few furlongs. Later, when he realized that policeman stopped chasing him, he found  shelter in an office(American embassy) slept among other homeless.

    When the rays of dawn shined, he woke up and realized that he was sleeping under the roof of Indian American Overseas Embassy .20 members were standing before him and 200 stood after. One man from the queue and approached him and asked to offer his position in the queue for Rs 2. Coming to know that he was sleeping in a queue where many were wanted to procure their visa in the embassy. Having received the money, he quenched his prolonged gluttony. By reserving seats for visa holders, he started earning 10-20 rupees in a day. By this the golden epoch of VKT Balan started. He found a room for rent for Rs150 and he was familiarized with various travel agents at the embassy and started receiving commission for selling flight tickets.

    In 1982,he got the job of a courier delivery for an agent to hand over visas for the passengers in Rameshwaram- Colombo cruise. There were many others like him. The train he used to take was interrupted 3 km before due to some commotion in bridge. He should deliver the visas within the prescribed time.  While other agents stepped back, he stood upfront, he started walking cautiously on the railway ballasts on the bridge, above the raging whirlpool of water and blowing winds. After few metres, the rage of the wind is very harsh that he decided to crawl the rest of the distance and successful in doing so which almost took 2 hours, crossing the bridge and delivered the visas within the time. This long journey of 2hours,crawling the distance of 2km,later bagged him name and fame , bringing orders from distant lands and this led to the breakthrough in his life, eventually the rise of ”MADHURA TRAVELS AGENCY”. While the rest of the agents stood back, he decided to crawl the distance by himself-This presence of mind brought him the required breakthrough. His professional integrity, good habits and hard labour got him valuable contacts.

    He also states that name for his company was inspired and  taken from the famous verse of Kaviarasu. Kannadasan’s song “Pullankuzhal kudutha moongilgale… Guruvaayoor thannil avan thavazhginravan…Oru kodiyodu MADURAAVAI Aazhginravan”.

    In 1987,he started conducting concerts with famous Vocalist, Seerkazhi Govindarajan across various European cities. Since then, there was no looking back for Balan.

    From 1987 to 2007,he organized more cultural programmes by gathering artists in more than 25 countries. Owing to this,His name is recorded in Limca book of records. He has received various awards including Kalaimamani, Thanga padhakkam from TN Government.

    By 2019, Madhura Travel agency has surpassed 100 crore turn-over and operates 24X7 in a year without a single holiday. In his life,he has never compromised his personal integrity and gratitude for those who have helped him. He also states that he wanted to gift a golden ring to the  Balan(The Police who he met at Egmore station),without him he would have stranded permanently in the pedestrian platform of Egmore.