Born in 1946 in Sivagangai in Tamilnadu (INDIA), Prof.Ramadas Balachandran is now Professor of English in Manonmaniam Sundaranar University Tirunelveli. He is also the Executive Board member of Sahitya Akademi (National Academy of Letters) of Department of Culture, Govt of India, New Delhi.

Prof. Balachandran is a reputed academic with more than 36 years of experience in teaching at colleges and University. During the last three decades he has been acclaimed as a Comparative Literature Scholar, a Translation Studies expert, a specialist in modern poetry and also as a poet of eminence, literary critic of repute, a translator, broadcaster, and television presenter. His popularity as a modern Tamil writer and an academic has now been widely recognized among the scholars and writers.

BALA belongs to a middle class family, and his parents Manickam Ramadas and Gnanambal believed that the ladders of success for their children lay in the field of education. They gave the best of their earnings to the education of their children. As were his brothers, Bala found his school days pleasant and rewarding. He completed his school final as a topper at Rajah’s High School, Sivagangai, and read for his graduation at Alagappa College, Karaikudi. After obtaining his Master’s Degree in English at Sri Venkateswara University in Triupati.

BALA worked with Prof.K.Chellappan
for his doctoral degree at Bharathidasan University and was awarded the diploma in 1991 for his research on British Movement Poets and Tamil New Poets. He taught in Government colleges at Rasipuram, Thanjavur, Mannargudi and Pudukkottai during 1968 to 1993 as a graduate teacher and later as Assistant Professor of English, before he moved to in Manonamaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli in 1993.

During his college days he developed his interest in poetry thanks to the opportunity provided by Alagappa college. He had access to modern as well as classical litrature, thanks to his brother-in law, Suba Sivagnanam. He read whatever came to his hands, and this consolidated his competence in Tamil language, which acquired vigour and verve in later years.

During the seventies he came into contact with many new promising poets of the day. His poems were published in many magazines like Vanambadi, Vannamkal, Deepam (edited by Na.Parthasarathy), Kannadasan, and his essays on new poetry appeared in Thamarai. He was invited to broadcast talks over All India Radio, and his colleagues came to know of his multifaceted talents as a teacher, quiz master, sports commentator, and journal editor.
His career as a Tamil writer was consolidated by the encouragement of the eminent poet-publisher Meera who issued his important books, Puthukkavithai Oru Puthupparvai and Surrealism through his publishing houses, Akaram and Annam in the seventies and eighties. His critical introduction to Tamil New Poetry was hailed by The Hindu as a milestone in Tamil Poetry Criticism. His comparative study of Bharathi and Keats was a significant contribution to Bharathi and CL Studies. When his column on poetry was published by THAI magazine, a weekly, started by M.G.R., he shot into prominence as a popular spokeperson on modern Tamil Poetry. During the eighties he published a little magazine by name Suvadu which received all around acclaim from fellow writers as well as academics. His first poetry collection Innoru Manitharkal is considered a significant contribution by many poets.

His most recent work is the much celebrated poetry collection,‘Thinnaikalum Varaverparaikalum (1999)’. Bala belives in the subtle gifts of Tamil tradition which are availble only to the most sensitive minds. He is a modernist in his own unique way, different from those influenced by Anglo-Americian modernism.
Ever since he joined Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Bala has consolidated his name as a teacher of repute, and a researcher of merit. He has been guiding 18 Ph.D scholars and 24 M.Phil scholars during the last ten years.

He is very often an invitee speaker to conferences and seminars; he has been a panelist, chairperson, inaugural speaker, valediction speaker, plenary and key-note speaker in several regional and national seminars. He has been invited to several endowment lectures and has taught in Academic Staff Colleges for both English and Tamil teachers. He has also taught in ELT workshops for college teachers conducted by the State Institute of English. He has offered poetry workshops on Modern Tamil Poetry and has also served as a resource person in many translation workshops.

He has given his expertise as an English language teacher and as a Comparative Literature scholar at the Boards of Studies of many universities and autonomous colleges as well as in UGC bodies like NET. He has served in many panels of Selection Boards for faculty like Teacher Recruitment Boards and also on the panels of jury for literary awards. He has been examiner for D.Lit and Ph.D dissertation of many universities.

He was invited as a UGC Visiting Faculty to the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkatha .As a scholar of eminence he was also invited to visit Sri Lanka by the Culture Ministry of the nation and recently was invited to an international conference of Indian Writers held at New York. He has also been invited to SAARC Nation Writers Conference 2005.

Dr.Bala has to his credit more than 20 books in Tamil and English besides many articles and papers. They include poetry collections, criticism, Conversations, monographs, critical surveys of literature, translations, and edited volumes of essays.

He is currently engaged in editing a volume of essays on Tamil Literary Theory in the context of new theories of the West, and is serving as one of the editors for two important projects: Encyclopedia of Indian Poetics and History of Tamil Literature (in three volumes)