80 melodious years

Bhagyashree Tarke

Indira Mani is a renowned classical singer and music composer. Even as she turns 80, the light music composer is full of life and energy. Not only has she been performing the Tyagaraja Aradhana for the past 30 years along with her students, she has also been teaching patriotic and devotional songs and their importance to them. This is one aspect that differentiates her from other music teachers.

Originally from Tirupati, she was trained by Subramanya Pillai and Rallapalli Ananthakrishna Sharma of Chittoor. Her skills were further polished by her elder sister P S Lakshmi, who is a well known Gottuwadhyam Vidhwan. Indira Mani specialised in Annamacharya Keerthanas and was one of the first women to compose light music for shows on AIR and Doordarshan.

In the year 1973, she brought into being Raga Sudha, which is an institution of music that promotes classical music and nurtures young talent. With her career spanning over half a century, Indira Mani is one of the most sought after music teachers.

“I teach children who are above the age of five, to whatever age they want to pursue. But in my opinion the ideal age to start music training would be from eight years onwards,” she said. “I like coming here every day to learn music, in fact I wait for it. We learn patriotic and devotional songs that madam composes herself especially for us. Our ma’am is very sweet and loving and we like her very much,” says a student of the juniors’ batch.

Currently she has a batch of 30 odd students who come in three divisions namely, sub junior, junior and senior students. Her students include, T L Sangeeta, Deputy Collector, Shobha Shankar a former news reader on DD and her daughter C Padmaja, a live singer for the same channel.

She starts off every class with a prayer in which she is accompanied by her students. She also directs and organises a ballet programme on Tyagaraja Panchatantra Keerthanas where the seniors are made to sing and the juniors are made to stage the act. She suggests all young and aspiring singers and musicians to learn classical music as it strengthens one’s voice and musical instinct.

“As people say behind every successful man there is a woman, it is the other way round in my case. I could have such a successful career only because of husband’s love and support,” said the singer.