Block2Blog

Review by Abhijit Nag (ex journalist at SPH) PN Balji has the distinction of helping launch two newspapers in Singapore. Starting as the deputy editor of The New Paper, he soon became its editor and, after steering it to success, was the founding editor of Today . Though both are available online only now, they were widely circulated major dailies with large readerships in their day. The catchy, splashy The New Paper could not be more different from the text-heavy Today — proof of Balji’s versatility. Innovative, incisive, a gregarious wordsmith who mixes freely with people and writes insightfully about society, Balji has his fans who catapulted his memoir, The Reluctant Editor, to the top of the bestseller list in Singapore. Now here’s his biography by another media trailblazer: Woon Tai Ho founded the Singapore TV news channel, Channel NewsAsia. An admirer of Balji, he writes engagingly about the newspaper veteran. While Balji in The Reluctant Editor wrote primarily about his ex...

  Precious Memories of My Growing Years in Naval Base The British Influence My experiences, from my time in a colonial Singapore back in the 1960s, are unique, endearing, and unforgettable and may resonate with many of you. I was born in the Solomon Maternal Clinic, situated at Prinsep Street in the Dhoby Ghaut district. I lived my first 15 years in Naval Base, from 1956 to 1971. At that time, the community was fully protected and equipped like a satellite town, thanks to the British rule. I grew up at the Naval Base Hospital Quarters among 11 families. The men of these families helmed the breadwinner role by working in the Hospital, while the womenfolk stayed at home to cook and care for the children. The residents in our community were a mixture of races and religions, which did not matter to us. We carried on as One People, enjoying each other's company. In the 1950s, the hospital was renamed as the Royal Naval Asian Hospital and was located along Canberra Road (as state...