Sruthilaya Arunodaya Music School

Our music school is located over on Iyancheri Main Road in Chengalpattu. It’s at No 18, which isn’t a very big building but we make it work for the classes we hold. You can usually hear the sound of someone practicing the violin or singing scales as you walk up the path. It’s not always perfectly in tune, but that is just part of learning music, I suppose. We have a few rooms set aside for different instruments. The floors are just plain tile and we have some mats for people to sit on while they play. Most of our students come from the nearby streets after their regular school hours are done for the day. It gets quite busy in the evenings when the sun starts to go down. People just find out about us by word of mouth or by seeing the sign when they are driving past on the main road. The instruments need tuning quite often because of the humidity here. We keep a few spare strings and some chalk for the blackboards in the corner of the room. It is a simple place where the main thing is just getting the notes right. Sometimes we have small programs where the kids perform for their parents, and we just squeeze everyone into the main hall. It’s a bit cramped but it feels like a nice community. We just focus on the lessons and keeping the instruments in okay shape.