There are no struggles in life

Invaluable lessons from Mrs. Saroja Srinath, born April 30, 1935, at the age of 89, recorded on the 26th of May, 2024, a day after she launched two books in Kannada. (detailed bio at the end) This article is a summary of what she shared when asked about the secret of her long, active life and other questions on her generosity and attitude to challenges. Many of her answers are akin to the studies done on longevity - good food, good relationships, a resilient mindset and a strong sense of purpose.

If any of you wish to interact/ ask questions to Mrs. Srinath, post in the comments below or write to us @ensocirclesinfo@gmail.com.

There are no struggles in life, only experiences

I did not have any struggles. Even if they did arise, I would ignore them and move on. My secret to a fulfilled life is to look forward, definitely not behind, and not even sideways. Even as a child, when I participated in running races or when I was studying, I never bothered who was running next to me, or who was doing what. I would focus on myself, just on moving forward, and taking the next step.

It is not as if I did not experience tough times. Tough phases of life are experienced by everyone, there is nothing unique about what I went through. But I don’t look at it as struggle or suffering. Instead, I think of them as experiences. And life will give us all kinds of experience. There is nothing called a negative experience. They are there for us to learn from, or there is a reason they are there. They hold invaluable lessons for us. When you understand this, no anger remains in us.

There were days when financially we were not doing very well. Instead of worrying about it, I would think about what needs to be done about it. I never lost courage and did the best I could do in each situation. Even when I lost my husband, I did not lose my hopes. I had only one daughter and if I become disappointed, my daughter would get affected. So I had to keep my spirits up. It was my responsibility to keep her as happy as I possibly could, and do the best in my situation.

Our students were very poor, so most of the times we did not charge them? Sometimes even rich people with enough money would not pay us. Of course, they did not know about our troubles, but I never shared with them, for I always believe that my struggle is nobody else’s concern. I knew people used to charge a lot. But I believed the arts should be encouraged and shared. Our culture lies in this rich tradition and should be preserved. I tried to help those with lesser than us. I was not very successful but I tried my best.

It is a blessing to be surrounded by good people

            The atmosphere at my house as I was growing up was very good. I was always encouraged in whatever I did, from the smallest to the biggest, and my elders would teach me how to do it better. I would also listen to them and hence learnt a lot from them.

I also had a very good friend in Dr. Kanak Rele. She helped me during my husband’s illness and in many other ways—financially and morally. She was my Ph.D. guide, and I had finished a bit of my thesis when my husband passed away. I had to discontinue my studies.  When I told her of my regret, she reminded me that the recognition I have got from the Mumbai university and other scholars are good enough and I don’t need a PhD. Before she died, she heard the news about me getting an award for one of my books. She wanted to honour me, but she passed away before that happened. We would talk daily for one hour. This was a friendship for almost 45 years.

You can’t get back lost time

I give a lot of importance to time. You can earn everything but not lost time. This was imparted to me from a young age and I understood this.  All my work is done promptly. I try to utilise my time as well as possible. Now, at this age, I need a lot of rest. Hence I spend time watching television. But even in that I try to learn as much as possible. My latest endeavour is to find Tamil words which are also used in Kannada and to see if the meaning and the usage is the same.  

A healthy mind leads to a healthy body

I don't harbour any negative thoughts about others. If someone did something harmful or unpleasant to me, I would always analyse within myself about why they would have done it. I try to think of their background, and understand their compulsions, and my own role in the situation. We should never harbour any hatred or negativity. This helps us stay calm. If our mind is healthy , our body will be healthy.

I don't like to talk about anyone negatively. We should use ourselves as an example. If someone is talking rashly, we should talk softly and become an example instead of talking about them. We should examine ourselves rather than focus on others.

If someone wrongs me, I always know there will be some reason. And I am always looking at how I can rectify that. I try my best to be a good example. When I spend time writing and reading, it becomes an example to the younger generation.

Play is important

I used to play all kinds of sports as a young girl. We, cousins and friends - boys and girls, would play a lot. From climbing trees, and jumping from trees, This trains the body well. It is important for all ages. Badminton, throwball, skipping, tennis, were all a part of my growing up. After marriage and children also I used to play whenever an opportunity presented itself. I would go to a garden whenever possible and I also did a lot of walking. In theater I used to do a lot of yoga – suryanamaskars etc. Even the voice training for music helps.

At home we would play with stones, which we would throw up in the air in multiples and catch. This would make our focus sharp, and fingers nimble. Chowkabara, and many games like this, had math as a root. We were not allowed to play cards at home. We used to do a lot of skipping. We had a huge mango orchard, we all used to play there without fear.

It is because of this play that today I am able to do what I do. We were not used to sitting at one place with a cellphone.  Nowadays this is the trend, but luckily for us we had no such things.

There should be discipline in eating habits

I have never had temptations as far as food is concerned. I eat limited quantities of food and eat whatever my elders told me is good for me I would eat. If someone tells me not to eat something, because it is not good for my health, I stop it. I have no cravings or aversion in food since my childhood. I eat happily whatever is there, and this has helped. I have always eaten pure vegetarian food. I have never even eaten cake with eggs. My doctor recently told that he noticed that non vegetarians age earlier. I don’t know how far this is true.

I don’t follow any particular diet as such, but I tend to eat home cooked meals which has been traditionally eaten by our ancestors. I always eat on time.

When I was very young, we used to eat a lot of fruits, esp. jackfruit because it would grow locally. We used to get caught because of the smell. We had a guava and a pomegranate tree in our backyard. We would eat all the fruits that fell abundantly from the tree. We used to eat cherry tomatoes which used to grow in our garden. We would eat a lot of Tulsi leaves and this really kept our health intact.

I eat on time. I eat in between meals only if I feel tired or my sugar goes down. I also get regular health check ups done and follow the instructions of my doctor completely.

 Cleanliness is important

I am very particular about cleanliness. Esp. in the kitchen . I don’t like leaving food uncovered. When we came from school, we would head straight for the bathroom which sued to be outside the house. We would first wash our hands and feet, put our uniform to wash, and wear the home clothes that would be hung in the bathroom. Only then could we enter the house. Even now, I insist everyone washes their hands and feet before coming into the house. Earlier this was a ritual, but now I follow it for cleanliness. I also wash my walking stick. (laughs)

Everyone is one.

To me God means an energy and is formless. God can take any form.  To me Buddha, Mahavir, Krishna, Shiva, Jesus, Mary.. are all the same god. There is no this god or that god. It is all one. I often chant the name of  God, and this helps me keep my mind clear.

Whoever has served society, to me they are all mahatmas and I bow to these good qualities in people. For eg. I know a professor who encourages all his students and others, including me. Such people I consider my manasa guru. Right from my childhood everyone who taught me something or helped me, I bow to them with gratitude and respect in my heart.

We have no caste or religious beliefs in our family. We used to go to church and dargas regularly. My grandmother taught me that all gods are the same. They never differentiated between people. She used to always teach us they are all humans and would remind us to treat everyone with respect. Our grandmother always made us go and serve buttermilk to the farm help when they would take rest under the tree near our house.

We had a muslim lady who took care of the entire house. We went to a catholic school. Once a neighbour tried to tell our grandmother that the school would take us to a church and convert us. So my grandmother argued that if it was gods place it did not matter which god resided there. As long as the children learnt the right values, it was fine. There was no discrimination and our grandmother would argue with anyone who would try to tell us that our caste will get polluted. Even my husband would declare that he was not a brahman because he performed no functions a brahman is supposed to.

A student of life and a life long student

I am still a student and I am learning. I still learn and try to follow what others teach me. I never mind if someone teaches me something. I am grateful.

Writing was always a habit. If something happened, I would write about it. At home, when we  were children, my uncle would regularly conduct a sabha. We had to sing, recite, dance, or do something we were good at. Or we had to talk about something. I used to like hanuman so sometimes I would analyse his character and talk about it. Not to show our intellect but to develop a character. This was our evening practice.

Our knowledge came from people, going to dance and music programs, and we used to listen to good speeches and our interest was developed. We also had to do small theatre items at home when we were small. We used to enact Kalidasa and small episodes of Ramayana. Even now I am interested in learning and writing about many of these topics

I wanted to join a school near us. Dramatics was important to us and I had gotten a 20 rupees scholarship for the dramatics. I met my husband here. It was an umbrella friendship. ( laughs) In the rains he would drop me off with his umbrella to the bus stop and our friendship grew.

We used to have great poets my granduncle was a well-known writer. All scholars and writers would come home sit in our compound and have discussions till late in the night. That environment is so different and rare. I was lucky to have that. Nowadays such environments are not easily available to people.

Satisfaction of doing is reward enough

Dr. Kanak Rele used to encourage me to create unknown compositions suitable for dance for the exams so that students would not pick up items from other dancers. I had to compose in Sanskrit and someone would correct it, because I was not a scholar in Sanskrit. Every year there was a dance competition. The students had to select the topic. For almost 20- 30 dance drama competitions,  I would write and give with music. No one worried about taking credit for such work then. As a teacher I had to provide and I did it. But this helped me make my own compositions later. The satisfaction of composing was reward enough. I was always happy with whatever I got. This kept me motivated to do more and more work.

With courage you can achieve anything

I had a lot more courage when I was younger. Yet, courage has helped me in many situations. You develop a presence of mind and can achieve anything when you are courageous. I often keep telling my grand-daughter “Dhairyam sarvatra sadhanam.” If you are courageous you can achieve everything. Now she tells me the same ( laughs).

Once there was scholar’s conference at our college and I was supposed to summarise the discussion.  The topics were very intense and I made notes. Dr. Kanak Rele pulled away my notes and made me talk without referring to the paper. I was mortified, but the talk went off very well.  this gave me courage. I could have taken this as insult or misunderstood her intentions. But she was actually trying to encourage me. Since then, I don’t worry about my notes. During my latest book launch I had made notes on what I had to talk, but on stage I spoke something impromptu and the people connected with that.

There were many situations when I had to use my presence of mind and get out of tough situations. I have been a rebel and have lived life on my own terms.  Courage has helped me immensely and my message to the younger generation, especially young women is to have the courage to do what you know you should do. No one else will bear your pain for you, so don’t worry about society. Rebel if you must, but take decisions that are good for you. Be courageous.

Smt. Saroja Srinath

Sangeetha Vidwan Smt. Saroja Srinath is the co-founder of Kanaka Sabha Performing Arts Centre. A veteran musician, composer and musicologist., she started her training in Carnatic vocal and veena under great gurus in Mysore, and went on to complete her BA honours in music and Kannada literature at the University of Mysore. Saroja also completed a course in Theatre Arts and Crafts at Chaya Academy in Bengaluru. She later moved to Chennai where she studied in the renowned Carnatic Music College, under illustrious gurus such as Dr. S. Ramanathan, Musiri Subramania Iyer, T. Brinda and M.S Anantharaman, and was awarded the Sangeetha Vidwan title. She also trained in vocal music under Dr. M. Balamuralikrishna. Her career fl ourished in Mumbai where she joined the Nalanda Nrityakala Mahavidyalaya, affi liated to the University of Mumbai, where she retired as the Head of Department of Bharata Natyam. She was the examiner and paper setter at the Bachelors and Masters levels at the University of Mumbai for over 20 years. She has also composed several music compositions for dance and dance dramas in Sanskrit, Telugu and Kannada. She has written several articles on music for journals, magazines and given lecture-demonstrations in India, Hong Kong and Singapore. She has also contributed numerous articles on a variety of subjects to the Mumbai Kannada press. In 2014,

She wrote and published a Kannada book “Amara Ramayana,” which narrates the stories of the Ramayana as they are told in various pan-Asian traditions . Since then she has published 7 books on various subjects in Kannada and to acknowledge her contribution to Kannada literature, her biography has been published by the department of Kannada , University of Mumbai. She is also an exponent of the art of batik painting.