At the age of 5 she started learning dance and today she is one of the brightest stars in India! Aharika Baskaran, 11 years old is a classical dancer and also a painter.

Aharika is the only daughter of R.Baskaran (late) and Thangamani Baskaran. She has excelled in the field of dance within just 6 years. Stages performances are nothing new to this little star. She has performed over 200 stage shows winning her recognition and awards. She has won prestigious awards for her excellence in dance. Some of the awards are YUVA NRITHYA JOTHI AWARD, NATYA KALA RATNA(Singapore), Jaya Malika Award, YUVA SRI KALA BHARATHI AWARD and many more esteemed awards.

Thangamani Baskaran, the proud mother, says, "I wanted my daughter to focus in Indian culture through dance and my dream is to see her start and run a dance school." She also adds that constant appreciation, encouragement and motivation made her daughter achieve this.

This is not all! She is an excellent painter too! She has held a painting exhibition called "Guru and Sishya's Varna Chitharangal" with 75 paintings of hers alone. All this at a very young age! Impressed by her paintings, an American had bought her work too! She received Third Prize in National Painting Competition from President Prathiba Patil.

Her master P. Rajendran says, "She joined my class when she was 6 years and was my first ever student. Within three years, she held her paintings exhibition. It is very difficult to do water color painting but at a very young age, she learnt the color calculations very quickly. Her hard work and never-give-up attitude made her reach heights. She competes with me to do better and that's how the painting exhibition happened! "

The young girl is very ambitious that she wants become a scientist, dancer and an artist.

When asked about what she aims to become, the twinkling star says, "I want to become a scientist like Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, a dancer like Padma Subramaniam, and an artist like Ravi Varma and M.F. Hussain. I do not want to be inside a shell. I believe that I can become a scientist who can dance and paint."

She excels in academics too. She takes part in all the literary events in her school and has won many prizes too. She has been awarded a scholarship by her school till class 12, first ever time in her school. Her talents do not end here! She is a trained classical singer and she is also learning to play veena.

She is one of the twinkling stars of India! No doubt, she is a Child Prodigy. Hats off to her.