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 She has gone where no woman has dared to go before. Rajeswari Iyer, a spiritual raconteur, dared to visit the Puzhal men’s prison to give a discourse. She had barged into the office of the then prison DGP Natraj and asked to be given permission to give discourses to the inmates. Though he seemed a little hesitant about allowing a programme with religious connotation within the prison, he did give her the greed light.
Though at first hardly 40-50 people gathered to listen to her, after the first 10 minutes the crowd swelled. “It was heartening that so many of them wanted to listen to something spiritual,” recalls Rajeswari.
It was not a one-off programme as she gave a couple more religious discourses to the inmates.
Rajeswari, who did her graduation in economics (SDNB Vaishnav College, Chromepet) and postgraduation in Tamil (Queen Mary’s College), has a knack of doing the unexpected as is understood from her attempt to take religion to the unlikely corners of Tamil Nadu. She has also given religious discourses in some of the Chennai slums.
“During one of my slum discourses, I taught the children to chant ‘Vittala’ along with me with their hands raised over their head. After a few days, while I was going by my two-wheeler near the slum, a small boy blocked my way. Stunned, I braked. He then put his hands over his head and chanted ‘Vittala, Vittala’ and ran away. I think that is the best award I could have got for my work till now,” says Rajeswari, her eyes gleaming while recounting the event.
What surprised her was that the kid recognised her after so many days and remembered the chant. She is always in a madisar (customary way a saree is worn by the Iyers) when she does the discourses – “I too need a uniform,” says Rajeswari - and while she was on the two-wheeler she was in a churidhar! She feels that if we take the message in the right form to people – be they in the prison or a slum – it will reach them.
 Rajeswari, now doing her Ph.D. in Tamil on ‘Andal and Baktha Thukaram – A Comparative Study’, says it was her mother - her guru - who inspired her to don the mantle of a spiritual raconteur. On her deathbed, her mother asked her to do her duty (kadamayai sey). Rajeswari, who has been a dutiful daughter, wife, daughter-in-law and mother, wondered what other ‘duty’ she had to perform.
Then one day, when she was reading the Bhagavad Gita, she came across the sloka in chapter 18 where lord Krishna says that you have done your duty if you chant his praise. She connected immediately with what her mother had said and launched into spiritual discourses. Now she recalls that her mother had trained her in music and giving religious lectures even when she was six – in fact, that was when she gave her first discourse!
“This is my second innings,” beams Rajeswari who has given discourses at weddings, sabhas, temples and schools.
She remembers with great glee the experience she had in Gudiyatham where a school had invited her to give a religious discourse. The school had roped in children from several other schools in the area and there were close to 3,000 kids listening to her with rapture. “Even the LKG kids put their hands together and chanted ‘Vittala’ with me and that was a moving experience.”
Other remarkable experiences were giving a discourse at the TTD centre in Chennai and giving the live commentary during the Tirumala-Tirupati Brahmotsavam.
Rajeswari started out her career as a journalist in Madurai ‘Dinamani’ and went on to work in ‘Gokulam Kadhir’, ‘Kumudham’ and was consultant editor for Apollo Hospitals group. At this juncture she wrote a series of stories for ‘Kumudham’ called ‘ICU’ stories. “I consider this work my masterpiece,” she says proudly.
She is now the editor of Editorial Desk, a consultant company that does work for corporates. She has been published: Her first book was ‘Abhang’. the life history of Baktha Thukaram, and ‘Idhayam’, which was a collection of 101 questions posed to famous doctor K M Cherian. Both books were published by Vikatan Prasuram.
A multi-faceted person – she has done PG diploma in journalism in Madurai Kamaraj University, BGL (Bachelor of General Law) in the same university, MBA at IGNOU, has a dual engineering diploma in multi-media from Arena, and did the teachers training course for a year at Music Academy – she does a lot of homework before taking on an audience.
She modifies her Tamil to suit the audience and she has to prepare a different ‘sequence’ for different audiences, choosing on the story, songs and adding a few jokes to sustain audience interest.
Belonging to the third generation of child prodigy Veenai Sithsabesa Iyer, Rajeswari has experience in debating from her college days and has participated in debates with Solomon Pappaiya, Sarada Nambi Arooran and poet Mu Metha.
With a saxophone and tavil for accompanying instruments, Rajeswari is going from strength to strength in her chosen ‘profession’ for which she now pays out of her pocket.
She has a five-year plan – to reach out to a 100 schools/colleges in the next five years with her the theme of respecting/loving/honouring your parents, through spiritual discourses. “It would be ideal if I can get some sponsors to help me do this. You see, to water a full-grown mango tree is not as enriching as watering a sapling that is struggling to grow. I look at the children as the saplings and would like to provide that much needed nourishment for their future well-being.”
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