About Me

I'm very much known to my friends and colleages as Bala and / or Murali. This page is dedicated to provide the information about myself, family, education and experience.

Birth, Childhood & Schooling

I was born in Manipay (a town in Jaffna peninsula) as the fourth child to my parents. I had my childhood schooling at J/Kokuvil Hindu Primary (yr 1 to yr 4) and J/Hindu Primary (yr 5). Later I shifted to J/St. Johns' College after passing my scholarship examination. I succeeded in my Ordinary Level (O/L) examinations with 7 distinctions and 1 credit. I selected the physical science stream for my Advanced Level (A/L) studies and got 4 distinctions in the final examination. I became 55th in the island and 6th in the district.

Academic Career

I was selected to the best engineering university in Sri Lanka, University of Moratuwa, as I achieved a 'super merit pass' for my advanced level exams. I graduated in 2002, with the degree of Bachelor of Science of Engineering (BSc Eng (Hons)) with first class. In my university examinations, I got the second rank within the batch in the first year examinations and I topped the second year examinations within the specialized field.

I completed my Master of Science (MSc) in Computer Science (Software systems specialization) in 2006 at the same university.

I am a Member of the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology, UK)  since 19th Dec, 2003 and an Associate Member of the IESL (Institue of Engineers, Sri Lanka) since 3rd Jan. 2004.

Professional Experience

I'm currently employed at IFS (Industrial and Financial Systems) as a Software Engineer, since my graduation in 2002. IFS holds a very significant market share of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) sector applications.

While I was in the university, I worked part-time for hSenid Software, during my final year.

More information about my career can be found in my resume page.

Family

My father, Sellathurai Balachandiran had been the Professor of Geography and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Jaffna. My mother is a housewife. My father passed away in 2001.

I married Mehala [ Blog ] in 2005 and we have a nice baby girl, Ashvitha. My wife is a Lecturer at the Department of Information Systems Engineering at the University of Colombo School of Computing.