A life less ordinary

Philanthropy, Bonsai, Ikebana, gardening?all match steps in equal measure in Manorama Vira?s life. We profile the ever-active 82-year-old.

I meet Manorama Vira in her study, at her Bangalore home. She?s sitting engrossed at her desk, cluttered with files and papers, all the evidence of a busy day at work. At 82, Manorama Vira probably packs in as much in her day as any busy executive does. As founder and managing trustee of the Sri Aurobindo Charitable Trust, close to the International Airport in Bangalore, she trains locals from the neighbouring villages in vocational courses, especially women. This training, in areas such as computers, tailoring, beautician courses, home nursing and bread making among others, enables them to become economically self-sufficient.

A varied life

We settle down for a chat and my eyes go to the framed photograph of a beautiful woman in a green lehenga. ?Oh that?s me on the cover of Femina,? comes the surprising admission. ?I knew the (then) editor Vimla Patil and she asked me to pose.?

As I discover while chatting with her, there are multiple facets to Manorama Vira?s life. She truly has explored every art-related arena, from dance and music to Ikebana to even trying her hand at choreography and a bit of modelling!

A devotee of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Manorama says that the focus of her work is women. While she provides them vocational training at the rural centre mentioned above, she also runs a women?s council that meets every month to discuss a variety of topics, from spirituality, yoga, home herbal remedies to discourses on diet, stress management, Gita and Upanishadas.

Manorama also runs a Kitchen Garden group with 90 members to discuss plants, flowers, nutrition, etc. Her thriving kitchen garden on the terrace with everything from capsicum, tomato to bitter gourd, bears out her love and enthusiasm for both gardening and food.

The Bonsai Guru

Plants and gardening have been close to Manorama?s heart for years. She has been a Bonsai and Ikebana teacher for several years and has taught all over the country and overseas. In fact, she was the one to introduce Bonsai art to Calcutta in 1977, sponsored by Jyotirmai Club, of which she is the honorary advisor. She has many firsts to her credit ? the first-ever interview to Radio Ceylon on Bonsai art in 1980, the first-ever demo of Bonsai on Doordarshan in Calcutta in 1982?the list is endless. She has had the rare privilege of demonstrating Bonsai at the Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.

She has been invited to teach and give demonstrations on Bonsai and Ikebana in Colombo, London and Frankfurt too. From the time she learnt Bonsai and Ikebana in the mid-60s and mastered it, she has travelled all over the country educating others in an art form she is passionate about. It wouldn?t be a stretch to say that she was one of the earliest to popularize these in the country. She has served as the founder-member of several Bonsai societies, like the Indian Bonsai Society Mumbai and the Indo Japanese Association Bangalore, apart from being former in-charge of the Bonsai gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Delhi. Her efforts and work in the field were noted by the Lalbagh Horticulture Society, Bangalore by naming a special Hibiscus flower after her. In the several years that she has been teaching, Manorama has taught everything from Bonsai and Ikebana to table arrangements, dry flower arrangements, miniature landscaping on a tray and terrariums. She was also one of the first people in the country to venture into vertical gardening or mural gardening, the latest ?green? concept that every upscale hotel has caught on to now. Her dedication to the spiritual aspect of plants reached its culmination when she served Sri Aurobindo Bhavan in Bangalore as director from 1985 to 1993.

Time for everything

Manorama was born in a traditional family in Bihar and raised in Bengal, a place she credits with her love for all things artistic. Growing up, she learnt everything from music, dance to art thanks to a mother who wanted her daughter to be accomplished in all areas.

?I got married at 20 and by that time had already learnt cooking from a maharaj (traditional cook), finished by BA (Hons) in Philosophy and had just joined the MA course,? she adds with a laugh.

Marriage to the son of an illustrious family from Delhi took her to Mumbai where her husband worked. It was a different milieu in those days and married women rarely performed but the artist in Manorama wasn?t ready to stay silent. ?When you have learnt dance and music for so many years, you can?t give up all of a sudden,? she maintains. As luck would have it, the famous Jhaveri sisters, the accomplished Manipuri dancers, lived in the same building and Manorama found herself learning from their Guru Bipin Singh. ?I learnt Manipuri for 10-15 years, along with ghazal and several other art forms.? Was there encouragement on the home front? Manorama is refreshingly candid, ?I did everything along with taking care of the house. I was allowed to do everything as long as the home front was taken care of.?

Her love for Ikebana started in 1963, when she attended a flower arrangement session conducted by the Ohara School of Ikebana. ?I wanted to learn more things and my spirits were never down, despite the lack of obvious encouragement at home,? she adds. She started taking classes at home after receiving her teacher?s diploma and soon the word spread and Manorama?s talent was in demand. ?I liked to keep myself busy by doing something creative,? she says simply when asked how she found the time for so much while raising three boys.

A large heart

Philanthropy runs deep in this senior citizen?s heart and she runs a free health camp once a year in her ancestral hometown, Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. ?It is something I have put a lot of effort into. I invite doctors from Delhi, raise funds and provide the entire service free of cost.? So far, she?s also held three artificial limb camps there. Taking the same spirit forward at the Sri Aurobindo Trust in Bangalore, she aims to conduct fertility and dental check-up camps for women in the neighbourhood villages.

It?s amazing to see Manorama?s abiding love for all things creative, be it dance, music, gardening or the things dearest to her heart ? Ikebana and Bonsai. Her philanthropy and charitable work is extremely praiseworthy. What is perhaps worth emulating the most among all these is her indomitable spirit to go on. Age no bar.