A new space for silent reading in Chennai

Balaji Silent Reader @park. That is a digital contact card, an eyebrow-raising one clearly. It raised this writer’s eyebrows when it popped up on his WhatsApp screen. It had been shared by K.L. Balasubramanian, a social entrepreneur driving RK Nagarra community developments, RK Nagarra being an association of residents groups in and around RK Nagar, the last outpost of Greater Chennai Corporation’s Zone 13. K.L. Balasubramanian had reasons to save this contact this way.

It is obvious the number behind the card belongs to one Balaji, and as it appears, he is someone who knows how to keep his jaws locked while his eyes are scanning the pages of a book, and displays this behaviour at a park. What is not obvious is that he, Balaji Venkataraman, a resident of D’Silva Road in Mylapore, makes sure jaws not his own are also locked and that the nose above those jaws is buried in a book. He is the face of the silent reading movement in these parts.