Simple,down-to-earth, they make you feel at ease at the very outset. The maestros that they are, Bombay Sisters belong to the golden era of MS, MLV and Pattammal, Radha and Jayalakshmi-this makes one nervous, but as we sit down to converse, Lalitha and Saroja are full of affectionate glance and demeanour.
The mention of a metro as a prefix to their names is slightly baffling to the newcomer. Do they hail from Bombay by any chance? “In a way yes. But not any longer. In fact we've been in Chennai for decades,'' says Lalitha with a smile. “We actually belong to Trichur (Thrisoor) in Kerala, but we moved over to Bombay as our father was working with the Western Railways. It is here that we had our initial training in music till past teenage. It was when Saroja got her government scholarship to pursue music in Central College at Madras, that the entire family decided to shift base to Chennai. As she studied music, we were both singing in concerts in a small way with our original names. There is a small story to our getting this ‘Bombay Sisters' nomenclature,” pauses Saroja, obviously amused to keep you guessing.
Lalitha takes it up. “It so happened that our neighbour, one Sri Chandrasekhar arranged our kaccheri at Ambattur in Mouna Swami's mutt, nearly 50 years ago! The Swamiji was very impressed with our recital and when introduced, he blessed us and suddenly re-christened us as Bombay Sisters. Ever since, it has been a lucky name for us and it clicked.”
They were the first among the duo women singers to be tagged as sisters. Why did you want to sing together? Pat comes the answer. “We didn't want to sing together. Our father wanted us to sing together and so it is,” says Saroja.
They do agree that despite a lot of advantages of singing together, there are certain lacunae. “For instance, we cannot suddenly oblige a request from the audience for a kriti , without having rehearsed it since it has to be correlated with two voices. And both of us are strong singers in our own way. Yet we have successfully sung together to this day,” says Lalitha.
Bombay Sisters are known for their devotional albums that are a must in every home in south India and Bombay. “We have come to Hyderabadafter two years. Earlier, Andhra Pradesh figured regularly in our list of concerts,” they admit but lately, they are busy with private recordings and recitals on their home turf.
