Kalyani Menon

In life, there are a very few things that we can truly call eternal. I’ve realised that this portrait of my mother is one of them. Although she left this mortal realm on the 2nd of August, we know that she lives on and guides us through her music and memories.

Contrary to the popular opinion of prioritising academics and stability over a life of artistic pursuit, my mother enabled me and my brother to make choices that empowered and challenged us because we all have only this one life. Even though she had become a single parent when my father passed away,she was just only 37 years old, she still didn’t use this situation to emotionally blackmail me into using my good academic record to design a conventional life for us and our family.

Srimathi Kalyani Menon  (5/7/1941 – 2/8/2021 )

This particular picture was taken in 1983 when I was experimenting with window light. I didn’t have a camera nor did I know what the future would hold but whenever I borrowed camera’s, my grandmother and my mother would be the most co-operative and beautiful models that any aspiring artist could ask for.

Aside from being such an involved mother, she was also an extremely dedicated and talented singer, a mentor to aspiring artists, a key member of the Mindscreen Institute family as well as our Karakket family and a progressive support system for my brother, my wife and daughters. We all truly miss her and we thank all the people who have reached out to us in the past few days with their support and condolences. It means a lot to us but we as we mou rn, we hope to also consciously choose to remember her in all her glory and continue to grow with her guidance and blessings even if she’s doing so from a far.

With a lot of love and light,
Rajiv, Karun and Latha , Saraswathi , Lakshmi