Bangalore: A
motorcyclist ran over global peace activist V Balu near M N Krishna Rau Park ‘in
Basavanagudi on Thursday. He succumbed to head injuries in hospital.
When Balu was
returning from the Institute of World Culture around 6.45 pm, the biker ran into
him and escaped.
Balu, who
sustained head injuries, was rushed to Bharathi Nursing Home on K R Road. From
there, his family, took him to NIMHANS, where he succumbed to injuries at 8.30
pm. The postmortem will be conducted on Friday.
|
|
|
Balu is
survived by three sons, Ashok, Vivek and Sanjay.
Ashok said: “I
spoke to my father just 20 minutes before the accident. He was at the Institute
of World Culture and was to return home because he was feeling tired.” Sanjay,
who was in Bangalore with his family for six weeks,had returned to the USA only
a week ago.
Writer, author,
editor of technical magazines, a former senior executive of the government of
India and a collage artist, Balu was born in 1928, Known as a ‘master of collage
art’, his work has been featured on UNICEF cards, covers of the Span magazine,
the UNESCO Courier and the 1995 collection of Reader’s Digest cover-art
featuring world artists.
Since 1982, he
had been promoting peace through his collages, which have been described as
‘one-man global peace mission through art’.
His ASK (Antar
Shanti Kala or the Art of Inner Peace) initiative has allowed people of
different ages and cultures to experience the power of art and the role of each
individual in promoting peace. He has written seven books on peace, including
works for children.
He was the
author of Sadda Shanti, which stresses on inner peace. His other wovks are
Shanti Sopana and Shanti Darshan.
Artist Yusuf
Arakkal said Balu has always been interested in the peace movement. “He was
multi-faceted and very active in Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat and the art
movement in Bangalore. His death is a loss for the art community.”
toiblr.reporter@timesgroup.com
|