By Suresh Shah, Monroeville, PA
Madhu Bala Singh,79, a resident of our metro area for over twenty-five years, passed away on March 19, 2023, with her husband, Mandaleshwar Singh on her side. The cause of her death was cardiac arrest. Madhu was born in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India, in 1943 to Dulari and Radha Krishna Kaushik. She was the second child among her parents’ seven children. Her mother was a musician, and her father was an educator and principal. She did her schooling and earned her BS and MS degrees in Rajasthan. In addition, she also earned her Senior Diploma in Tabla from Prayag Sangeet Samiti.
She and Mandaleshwar K. Singh (Mandal) were married in Udaipur in 1969. They moved to Bangalore for Mandal’s studies at the Indian Institute of Science. They then moved to the University of California, Santa Cruz. Madhu resumed her career in research when Mandal joined the University of Chicago as a postdoc. They had two stints in Europe: Uppsala (1986-1987) and Paris (1999-2000), before moving to the Pittsburgh area in 1996.
Madhu volunteered at nonprofit institutions through the years. While in Pittsburgh, she served for ten years as a docent at the Phipps Conservatory. She sang and played Tabla at the Hindu Jain Temple, and also in public functions and homes of her friends. While raising her two children (Manish, her son, and Roopa, her daughter), she kept an active social life such as reading with Bucknell book club and quilting with Monroeville Quilters.
She is survived by Mandal, son Manish and his daughter Zoya, and daughter Roopa and her son Ravi, two brothers Dinesh and Mahesh and two sisters Shashi Bala and Shail Bala, and cousins, nephews and nieces in the US and India.
A traditional Hindu funeral service for Madhu was held on Wednesday, March 22, 2023, at the Beinhauer Funeral Home in Dormont, PA with friends and family. Pandit Suresh Chandra Joshi, Hindu-Jain Temple, Monroeville guided the Madhu family with the Hindu cremation rites. Madhu’s friends remember her for her the volunteer work for the community, for being a good wife and mother, good neighbor and for her ever-present enthusiasm. ∎