On 10th August, 1915, in a tiny village in Tamil Nadu, a house was filled with the cries of a baby girl. The elated parents named the child Anasuya to mean one without malice or envy. Little did they know that their baby girl would go on to carry God’s will, become a visionary educationist and emerge as a resilient, trailblazing role model for society.
Though she was a bright pupil, Anasuya studied only till Class VII as those days, the education of girls was not considered essential. As it was customary in those times, she was also married off at a very young age. In due course, she gave birth to two beautiful daughters and it appeared as if her family was complete.
However, fate dealt her a cruel blow. She was widowed when she was barely twenty years of age and the challenging task of raising two children all alone, fell on her tender shoulders. In those days, a widow’s life was governed by orthodox societal rules and fraught with economic difficulties. Undeterred by these, she embarked on a journey to Bangalore with her mother and two daughters with the intention of starting a new life and completing her education. While living there, she also made sure that her children got educated.
Smt. Anasuya Devi adapted herself to the new city life with the able support of her mother. Without wallowing in self-pity, she also enrolled herself in the Mahila Seva Samaj to complete her basic education, and went on to finish her teacher training under the Mysore Teachers’ Training program. She then worked as a Hindi teacher at St. Joseph’s European High school and at Acharya Pathasala in Bangalore.
In the year 1959, when she had resigned from her post at St. Joseph's European School, Lord Murugan (Lord Subramanya/ Lord Karthika) appeared in her dreams, urging her to start a school for the middle class in south Bangalore.
Inspired by this divine vision, she carried out the wishes of God and started a play home from her rented single-bedroom house in Tata Silk Farm in 1959. Being an ardent devotee of Lord Murugan, she named her school ‘Sri Kumaran’. The journey of the Kumaran schools began with three little children in the play home, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Though she had defied many norms to come this far, Smt. Anasuya Devi had a deep love and regard for Indian culture and values. The divine mix of bhajans and prayers sung every morning across Kumaran institutions, the adherence to a high level of transparency between teachers and other stakeholders in our schools, and the insistence on ethics and values in every student are all a part of the Kumaran sensibility and the Kumaran value quotient that she ushered in, and which our schools have become synonymous with.
The school's motto – ‘Lead kindly light’ stands testimony to how Smt. Anasuya Devi led from the front, dispelling darkness wherever she went.
She left for the heavenly abode on 8th January 1975 and the task of carrying her legacy forward was taken over by her daughter Smt. Meenakshi Balakrishnan.
Smt. Anasuya Devi’s life was a story of indomitable will and zeal that helped her overcome every obstacle and touch hundreds of lives. Our dear Founder Mother lives in our memories and continues to inspire us to this day.
