Maadu meikkum kanne aruna sairam biography

Aruna Sairam

 

From Profile of Aruna Sayeeram  "Recently the Outlook magazine made the following observation : "M S Subbulakshmi is no more. But if there is any singer who comes close to matching such purity of voice, diction, impeccable sruti alignment and frill-free singing, it is Aruna Sairam..

Aruna Sairam was born in Bombay - a city whose rich cultural life embraces the majority of India's artistic fields - into a family with a deep love for music. Her mother, the singer Smt. Rajalakshmi Sethuraman, was her first teacher in the art of Carnatic music, while her father, a fine and knowledgeable connoisseur, established their house in Bombay as a favourite guest home for the greatest musicians and dancers from both Northern and Southern India, such as the dancer Smt. T. Balaraswati, the Khayal singer Ustad Amir Khan and the Carnatic flutist Sri. T. R. Mahalingam, Sangita Kalanidhi Smt. M. S. Subbulakshmi. It was in this propitious atmosphere, which was fundamental to the development of her art, that Aruna Sairam met Sangita Kalanidhi Smt. T. Brinda, who taught her for the next several years, training her in the style of her own mentor, the great Veena Dhanammal, one of the most outstanding figu

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I am a people's person

Interviewed by Akhila Krishnamurthy

You took a short break from performance recently. How does it feel to get back on stage after a four-month hiatus?

It feels great. I usually take some time off every year, but this was a concerted effort - on my part - to take a conscious break from performance.

The break allowed me both time and space to step back a little and breathe, let the air flow. I used the time to practice, to think and reflect upon music - my own and music at large, to spend quality time with my daughters and reconnect with extended members of the family. Overall, time well-spent!

What does it feel like to get back on stage?

Great, again! That’s where I belong, and that’s where I really come alive.

Does that getting back need preparation? When you are gearing up for a performance, you are, in a sense, getting ready to play a part? What’s that like?

Let me attempt to answer that by telling you a story. There was an unwritten rule in our home that whenever someone asked me to sing, I was to sing. No fuss, no excuses. My mother drilled it into my head that music indeed was a gift that was meant to be shared.

But as I stepped into my adolescence and into adulthood thereafter, I became conscious, inhibit

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