Home » Working Women » Women Achievers » Flavouring the Lives of Others - Ambika Kameshwar Young smiling faces, playing on the swings, coming roaring down the slide, others greeting you with a salaam- there is joy all round. This is Rasa. Rasa means flavour. It also stands for Ramana Sunritya Aalaya - or the temple of the cosmic dance. Adding a little rasa to these little hearts is Ambika Kameshwar. Yet the children at Rasa are different. They are children of a Lesser God.

Ambika Kameshwar is a doctorate in dance. A well-known dancer and singer she has several concerts in India and abroad to her credit. With a penchant for the classical arts she decided to modify and use the same as therapy for special children.

Ambika began teaching dance to the Spastics and the children suffering from Down's syndrome. She realised that fine arts could be used as tools to teach children as she explains "if the child has to verbalise, instead of making him/her repeat the sound we tell the same in a story form using music and dance. For example, we create a story, telling the child that he/she is in a room and a thief suddenly comes to rob; how would he/she shout?" Ambika modified and devised movements combining music, drama, storytelling, arts, craft and games and called it Creative Movement Education. This methodology has benefitted lots of special children and has also come to be accepted by medical specialists.

Started in 1986, Rasa is a day care centre for disabled children and boasts of hundreds of children. She has a team of people working, who are also as dedicated as her. Then there are physiotherapists and speech therapists who assess each child. "We incorporate these assessments and use them to help the child achieve his/her goal". Rasa has now reached out to many other special schools.

Once Rasa got going, Ambika decided to start a course in Creative Movement Education for people interested in working with special children. So Rasa now has a one-year part time PG diploma course which provides inputs in psychology, physiology and study of various disabilities. Specialists are invited to lecture to the students and part of the course means undertaking project study. At the end there is an exam.

Ambika has been the recipient of several awards including the Stree Ratna award. She says her husband is very supportive in her endeavours. A great admirer and believer of Ramana Maharishi, she draws a lot of inspiration from him. According to Lata Manohar, Rasa co-ordinator, " Ambika loves people and is so bubbly, that it is infectious". With a single-minded purpose i.e. using theatre, (which is but an imitation of life), she brings home a rainbow to the children of a Lesser God.