Mangaluru: A prominent American writer and Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner once said, “You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Some people in this world are born with passion, determination and true spirit to achieve something in life and explore it to the fullest. For such, hurdles and challenges do not matter as they believe in themselves and make the best of their talent and skills to achieve milestones. Such is 25-year-old Madhura Shenoy, who wishes to do more and go beyond her limitations.
Speaking to newskarnataka.com, Madhura spoke about her journey of achieving accolades in sports, singing, beauty pageant and National Cadet Corps (NCC).
‘My mother is my first guru in Music’
Throwing light on her initial stages of love towards music, especially singing, she said, “When I was a kid, I used to hear my mother humming tunes or singing in the kitchen. I just used to observe my mother, listened to her bhajans as well other genres of singing. This seeded in me the interest in music and then, there was no looking back.“
“My first step on the stage was when I was in LKG. In a competition in Sagar, I had enacted a ceramic container seller with a singing performance. Even though I was reluctant to go on the stage, the situation just made me do it. This helped me in my later performances”, she added.
Madhura spoke on whether she had received any initial training in singing for which she said, “I have never been trained in singing although I was enrolled into Carnatic singing classes. However, I always skipped classes giving innumerable false reasons to my mother. Till date, on a whole, I have attended only about a month’s classes. I can say music is in my genes as my mother’s family is into it.
Beginning of winning streak in cultural events
Speaking about her winning streak in competitions, she said, “I am fascinated by the field of art because of which I have varied interests like dance and singing. I had participated in folk dance and singing competitions in ‘Prathibha Karanji’, a taluk-level competition organised by the Department of Public Instruction, Primary Education, Government of Karnataka and also won a prize in it. When I was studying at Vivekanand School near my residence at Yeyyadi, I had won 13 prizes in annual day programmes. It was around the same time that I had participated in ‘Prathibha Karanji’ competition.
“When I began my higher primary education in the Canara School located in Dongarakeri, I began experimenting with bhajans and made a medley out of it. That was liked by my friends. However, students who won accolades in every competition were given first preference because of which I couldn’t participate most of the time. But, I made my way into the competitions and sang a Bhava Geethe, which I always prefer to sing and is my forte. I sang ‘Moodala Maneya’ written by a noted and prominent Kannada poet Da Ra Bendre. This grabbed the attention of the judges and they appreciated the manner in which I sang. Because of this, I who was only known to my friends became popular in the whole school”, she added.
On her interest in the Western genre of singing, she gives credit to St. Agnes College (Autonomous) Mangaluru. She said, “I had opted for Arts stream in my secondary education because I wanted to get into sports, music and other extra-curricular activities. The college supported me a lot. At first sight itself, I was mesmerised by the way the choir was organised during the prayer sessions. It caught my attention because of the melodious and synchronised singing. This drove me towards trying the Western style of singing though I did not get an opportunity to sing one.”
“Alva’s College gave me the first break in exploring my western singing. I participated in the university level competition and had sung ‘Hallelujah’ for which I was appreciated.”
‘Voice of GSB taught me importance of Guru’
Madhura said that she always searched for a right ‘Guru’ (teacher) who could guide her and polish her talent.
She said, “I always looking for a teacher who could identify that ‘X’ factor in me. This was made possible in Voice of GSB, where I felt that Guru’s are very important to mould one. The inputs that the judges gave me helped me evolve.”
She also shared her experience of participating in one of the prominent singing reality shows Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (Kannada). She said, “The audition goes through a lot of filtering and only the best is shown when the programme is aired. Behind the camera, the first thing that they ask is if you are a trained singer. If the answer is “No”, then your chances of selection drops. Nevertheless, it was an experience to cherish.”
‘Never thought of winning Miss GSB. It just happened’
Madhura Shenoy, who is also a winner of ‘Puzzolana Mr & Ms GSB– 2019’, spoke about her experiences during the competition.
“My strong support was my cousin sister’s Akshatha Kamath and Shilpa Baliga. While Akshatha Kamath notified me about the event, Shilpa stood by me and encouraged me to participate in the event. Akshatha made her way into top 30 and Shilpa who was also a contestant, supported me. At first, I thought it was not my cup of tea but then I thought ‘why not?’ I was selected among the top 30 in the whole of India, under the Goud Saraswat Community (GSB), through a filtering process on Facebook. Based on the likes that I got on my photograph, I was chosen. On January 26, 2019, I participated in the first round during which I was clueless. At that point of time, I was also suffering from severe food poisoning. With a high dosage of medicine and support of my cousin sister, I somehow managed”, she said.
“Some might think that this is a cooked up story but the fact is that the questions that the judges asked me were similar to my guesses. The questions were just like those in a stress interview and I was glad that I was also asked to sing for a minute which is my forte. In the following rounds, when they told the contestants to prepare a small presentation on four of their event sponsors, I was not in a situation to do so, as I had decided to back off due to my deteriorating health condition. But then, I thought I was putting my voters down, and yet again, took it as a challenge and made my way to the finale and won the title of Miss GSB”, she added.
‘Working for Chetana Special School children was memorable’
Madhura said, “The people who were selected for the finale were given a task to impress the judges as well as give a message to society. I chose to work with Chetana Special School located on V T Road. My thumb rule was not to collaborate with any organisation as it would be a taken as an opportunity for their publicity and I would earn nothing out of it. I, with my own hard earned money that I had kept in savings, got two garden benches and built a ‘katte’ (a circular sitting area made with bricks and stones, with a tree or a sapling in between for recreational purpose). This was earned when I worked for couple of months in an international airport. In the process of building the recreational area (katte) I was assisted by my cousin Vignesh Mallya and his team.”
“I, with the help of Vivek Paddiyar, who is a Visual Art faculty member in Alva’s College, painted art on the walls, so that the children could relate to it easily. I am grateful to Vivek, and my friends Sreejith, Raj Kishan and Roshan D’Souza who helped me in drafting the concept of wall painting. We used to sit from 5 PM to 11 PM to paint the wall, as during the mornings, the children would occupy the classrooms and there were high chances of touching the painted wall. During this process, my mother was a support pillar. We carried this out for roughly over a week”, she added.
‘Voice of GSB was an opportunity destined by God’
According to Madhura, ‘Voice of GSB’ was written in her destiny. She was one of the finalists in the singing reality show.
She said, “When I participated in Puzzolana Mr & Ms GSB – 2019, there were discussions on a providing a platform for singing talents in our community. I decided to participate in it as well. Somewhere down the line, I think that I was destined to showcase my talents and inturn achieve my dream of participating in a singing reality show that too, of my own community. All the participants were like a family and even now we keep in touch.”
It may be noted that Madhura was praised for her singing, especially in the semi-final round, where she was told by one of the judges, Charan Mallya that if he would produce a movie, she would be definietely chosen for playback singing in that movie.
Meanwhile, among all the finalists, Madhura too has bagged an opportunity to sing in an album with Puttur Narasimha Nayak, which he has assured of releasing within a month or two.
She has also received appreciation from Commanding Officer Alok Parmar during the Republic Day Camp (RDC) of NCC held at Karnataka Polytechnic (KPT) for her sheer determination and promptness during the training sessions.
Madhura was in the 18 Karnataka Battalion and was also trained by Associated NCC Officer Rajesh from Alva’s Institution.
Sports achievements
- Madhura has participated in the University Level Badminton Championship as a student of JSS Law College, Mysuru and she and her team were the first to win the title for the college
- She has represented St. Agnes College (Autonomous) in the state level Basketball tournament
- She has represented the college in ball badminton at the district level
- Best outgoing sports girl in Canara Girls school
- Best outgoing sports person in M Sc Criminology Forensic Science, Roshini Nilaya Mangaluru
She has thanked P. Ed Jayashree and coach Adithya of St Agnes P U College for supporting her in the basketball tournament.
Academic excellence
- Best outgoing student in St Agnes P U College
- Miss Black coat in JSS Law College
On a closing note, when asked if she had anything in her bucket list to explore, she said that she would like to venture into adventure sports and wait for any other new avenues to open.
