Struggling hard for existence, he spent his time in the company of others who were like him in search of odd jobs. One ill-fated day, which changed his entire life, Balan was sleeping tired, broken and faint-hearted, with the deprived lot of others like him at Egmore Railway Station. Suddenly he was disturbed and woken up by a policeman at midnight. He had to run to the best of his ability to avoid getting arrested. While running, he noticed a queue of people standing near a building and joined the queue to escape the policeman. Then a stranger approached him and asked whether he can get a berth in the queue. Balan instinctively obliged and the stranger gave Balan Rupees two. Balan realised that he had been standing and sitting on the platform adjacent to the American consulate. Balan received it with a great surprise and safely possessed the capital for madura travel service in his pocket.
Thereafter he approached more gentlemen who frequented the American Consulate for Visa. He even accompanied them to the offices of other travel agents and helped them to get their tickets. He earned the goodwill of many gentlemen as well as majority of the travel agents.
To fulfill his dream and hard work, madura travel service was born on 17th January 1986. Now it has turnover in Crores and functions in its own premises opposite to Egmore Railway Station.
Till today, Balan lives as a simple man clad in white khadi shirt and dhoti with a rubber slipper and forehead smeared with sandal paste and saffron. He has upgraded himself to the position of the Chairman and Managing Director of madura travel service (P) Ltd.
Mr.Balan is searching and wants to present a Gold Ring to that particular policeman who had beaten and chased him away and attempted to handcuff him.
The Government of Tamil Nadu had conferred Mr.Balan with the prestigious "Kalaimamani" award and the citation was given to him by the then Tamil Nadu Governor Ms. Fathima Beevi. The then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi presented the shawl and gave him the "Thanga Pathakam" (Gold Award).
His TV program in 'Pothigai' TV "Velichchathin Marupakkam' which portrays about down ridden and unfortunate people is presented by him for more than 300 episodes.He brought a real sense of energy and warmth to all the shows he presented.
In the year 1992 He had arranged a Gala Music Festival by bringing in all most all the Tamil Film music artists together and presented the video cassette to the then President R. Venkataraman who officially released the same. It is kept as a treasure in the Tamil homes Worldwide.From 1987 to 2007 by bringing together thousands of artists, Balan had conducted more than 200 cultural programmes in 25 countries and more. Balan's this activity had been recorded as an achievement in the Limca Record of Books. Limca Record of Book's is registering records like this by any Indian. This had fetched a great name for Balan and undoubtedly a great name for both Tamil language and the state of Tamil Nadu.
Balan had also established an Institute by the name "Madura Institute". This Institute gives training related with all information regarding Air Travel. In this Institute, training is given free of cost for those persons who are physically challenged. Those physically challenged persons were also given immediate jobs as soon as they finished their training. It has the credit of training a physically challenged to get his IATA qualification employed him as Assistant Manager.
What the VIP's have to say about him in the link below.
http://maduratravel.com/vip-talks/
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