Tumpa Kumari is Not Just a Singing Sensation, She’s a Real Fighter

A singing sensation from Ranchi, the 16 year old visually impaired Tumpa Kumari, is now being trained by Hariharan

Acclaimed singer Hariharan with his newest student, Tumpa Kumari in Mumbai (Photo: Youtube/

Sixteen year old visually impaired Tumpa Kumari from Jharkhand has always loved singing. But life was neither fair, nor easy for her. She lost both her parents at an early age. Her elder sister has been working since the age of 14 to make ends meet. Tumpa made her way to Brajkishore Netraheen Balika Vidyalay, a charitable non-profit residential school for the blind.

Last month, when she was asked to sing in school, Tumpa sang the popular song from Aashiqui 2, ‘Sun Raha Hai Na Tu’ . One of her teachers recorded her rendition of the Bollywood number and uploaded the video on social media. Her god-gifted voice made Tumpa a viral sensation in no time!

Singer Shreya Ghoshal stumbled upon the video and decided to reach out to Tumpa via Twitter.

But the biggest good news for Tumpa, was yet to come. Singer Hariharan saw the video too. He loved her voice and took it upon himself to train Tumpa as a professional singer. The Ranchi girl was flown to Mumbai on Wednesday where she met Hariharan, which in itself was a dream come true for this young singing sensation.

For me this is a dream come true. Hariharan sir is very nice, he taught me so many raagas. Now I’m going to live in Mumbai and he will train me whenever he has the time. I can’t believe I am in Mumbai, I am very happy!
– Tumpa Kumari

Now that Tumpa is in the city of her dreams she is missing her friends back home in Ranchi.

I am missing all my school friends. But now I will concentrate on singing and soon I will go and meet them.
– Tumpa Kumari

Back home she used to be glued to the TV, listening to young singers like herself, in reality shows.

I heard all of them in Indian Idol, Voice of India, Sa Re Ga Ma and I used to wish to be in one of these shows.
– Tumpa Kumari

Tumpa clearly dreams big. Her favourite singers are Lata Mangeshkar and Alka Yagnik. When asked which film actress would she like to give her voice to, she said, “I would like to sing for Deepika Padukone”

Tumpa Kumari’s rise against all the odds you could possibly imagine, is just another example of the power of good talent and social media, of course. We hope her dream to sing for Deepika Padukone comes true very soon.