Balachandra Menon was born in
Kollam in 1954 to Shivashankara Pillai and Lalitha Devi. By virtue of his father being a railway station master, he served at
Edava railway station and Menon had his formative years of childhood and adolescence life in this village. He studied at Edava Muslim High School, and has narrated nostalgically about his fond memories of his life in Edava in his autobiography
Ammayaane Sathyam. He is an alumnus of
University College Trivandrum,
Fatima Mata National College, Kollam and
Kerala Law Academy Law College, Thiruvananthapuram. Sisters: Sushma and Prema. Wife: Varada B. Menon. Children: Akhil Vinayak Menon, Bhavana B. Menon. Menon enrolled as a lawyer on 29 July 2012, 22 years after completing his degree. In 1997, he won the Karshakashree Award for farming from the
Government of Kerala. During his early days in Madras, he worked for the film weekly
Nana as a correspondent. His column in
Nana, 'Nanaji's Cinema Varaphalam' (Nanaji's Cinema Weekly), was very popular at the time. He has completed a diploma in journalism from
Press Club,
Trivandrum. ==Literary works==