AR Rahman’s mother asked him to ‘discontinue his schooling’ for the family to survive: ‘I thought what would happen to me?’

Rahman’s sister AR Reihana shared that even though he was not very good at studies, he did not want to leave school altogether. She shared, “Even though he is not very good at studies and he wanted to go to school but my mother insisted that he goes and plays because she needed the money to run the family so that was very heart breaking situation.”

Rahman also spoke about that life-changing decision and said that he left his school “half-heartedly.” “It was a very difficult decision where I was half-heartedly leaving my school campus and thinking what’s going to happen to me?” he said.

Rahman’s father RK Shekar passed away when he was 9, and he started working at the age of 11. In an earlier chat with the same channel Rahman discussed that his childhood was “not normal.” “My childhood was not a normal one. I was a bit secluded. I mainly lived in hospitals with my father getting treatment. And at the age of 11 or 12, I started working. I didn’t have the privilege of going out or playing sports. But, I had personal time, which I spent mostly with music. Which is in a way was a blessing,” he said.