Mahima Sreedhar is born & raised in Calcutta. Both her parents were socially very well connected and proud Hebbar iyengars.They were very active in Calcutta Mysore Association. This Association had lots of Hebbar iyengars as members and her parents alwaysmade it a point to talk in our mother tongue only. So, Mahima grew up acquiring all those traits and loved our Language very much. she can speak read and write 9 different Indian languages. As a very young person she was very artistically inclined. She used to sing jingles for various radio commercials in many languages. She used to translate jingles on the spot from one langiage to another and save money for the producer. She is a trained Bharathnatyam Classical Dancer and a Carnatic classical singer. She has won a best actress award in Calcutta. On her frequent visits to Bangalore during summer vacations, she used to feel strange while all her relatives spoke only in Kannada and not in our Hebbar Tamil.
Much later in life in a Hebbar Iyengar group she casually asked "why is that we are not trying to converse in our mother tongue"? A relative impatiently snapped "ayyo! adoo ondu bhashena? kelokke eradu kivi saaldu. Thoo.Aaa advanaddu Tamil matadokkinta lakshanvaagi kannada dalle mata adodu Voledu." Some one else commented "nijvaaglu,aden tamil antaro adunna,ikkurna pukurna anta, gabbu,bhaashe najookilla, ellu illa." This provoked and prompted her to sing in Hebbar Language that we all enjoy even now. Mahima got full support of her husband. They played all the songs in Hebbar SriVaishnava Sabha when a lot of senior citizens were gathered to celebrate Shri RamanujaAcharya thirunakshtra and got a tremendous support. Shriman Govindraj Iyengar gave her his blessings and Rs.1001.00 to encourage her. Mahima has acted in many movies and in some Hindi serials. Two of her movies won National awards, Tamil-"-aana aavanna" and in Kannada--"shankha naada.".
She was also on the Film censor board -southern region, which was a very responsible post which kept me busy for two terms. She lives in Silicon valley, CA and help people with Bhajans, Gita studies etc. She does her best to imbibe good culture in younger Hebbar Iyengar generation.
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