Kalyanalakshmy Bhanu Murthy passed away on Nov. 2. She was the founder and the first head of the Vidya Mandir Matriculation School, then registered under the University of Madras. Later, the school came under the CBSE system.
She was a brilliant educationist, with a master’s degree in political science and a degree in teaching from the Madras University.
From 1958 to 1963, “Kalyan Miss” as she was known, provided dynamic and creative leadership to the innovative and child-friendly educational methods, which have been sustained as ‘Brand Vidya Mandir’ in the five decades that followed. In this task, she had the collaboration of her sister, “Anand Miss”, who came back in 1960, after a two-year break as a Fulbright scholar in the US, to manage the Primary Section.
Kalyanalakshmy’s warmth as a person, her enthusiasm for teaching and her commitment to reach every student, endeared her to students and colleagues alike. Her creativity ensured that there was never a dull moment in the school. She left Madras in 1963, when she got married and went to Bombay and Princeton with her husband, an eminent mathematician. Her second stint of teaching in the seventies was also at Chennai, in The School, Krishnamurthi Foundation of India, where she continued her life’s mission of igniting young minds.
She had deep knowledge of and passionate love for classical music, working closely with the renowned Vidya Shankar on her learned publications on music.
The family can be reached at 2441 7563.
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