Kalyani Giri is a fifth generation Indian born in Durban, South Africa. Educated at the prestigious St Anthony’s School, where knowledge was imparted by English nuns in a Christian convent school format, she headed the debating team and won several awards for her artistic talent. Hailing from a family steeped in Indian cultural arts, with music taught to her by her mother from a very young age, she was inspired to learn the classical music of South India – which was not offered in South Africa during the apartheid years because of the cultural embargo. To accomplish this, she left for India and enrolled at the Queen Mary’s College in Madras. She simultaneously received additional vocal tutelage from her guru Mayilam Shri Vajravelloo Moodiliar of the celebrated Annamalai University of Chidambaram.
While studying in India, she discovered a natural aptitude for writing and became a contributing editor with Pondicherry’s “Youth Age” magazine. When the opportunity to leave India for the United States presented itself, she found expression in the Houston-based “Asian Woman Magazine”, which accorded women an effective forum.
Soon journalism became her primary vocation, with her contributing articles to local as well as national newspapers – Indo American News, Hinduism Today, Voice of Asia, India Herald, India Post – to name but a few. Her interviews with people, their lives and achievements, documented with a uniquely personal touch, make for fascinating reading. Community events are also written with intuitive verve.
She contributed the article on Gopalan Govender for this website.
Kalyani Giri can be reached at email address engtutor0707@gmail.com