The small, innocuous flat near Mylapore looks nothing unique from the outside, except for the brass knocker on the door. But this is where Miss Padmavathy runs "Happy School." A single woman, she is committed to bring back the smile on the faces of special children with varying degrees of retardation. Of Swiss and Indian parentage, Padmavathy chose India as her abode. She confesses to having felt ashamed when friends in the UK and New Zealand asked her about our culture and she could give no satisfying reply. On returning to India, she joined the Krishnamachari Yoga Mandiram and learnt Yoga besides undergoing a teacher's training course.
Since 1992, she has been taking remedial education for children with learning problems. In 1997, she started her own school with seven children. Their problems ranged from autism, speech or learning disability to epilepsy. "Guided by my nose," as she put it, Padmavathy tries
different types of therapy. They involve dancing or creative movement, music, yoga, Veda chanting, drama and academic-oriented lessons. Lessons are taught innovatively. She makes use of two-sided blackboards that give good motor activity to both hands, husk to draw on, alphabets that help finger co-ordination, copper balls and copper rods for exercises, clay for modelling and so on.
The combined therapy has worked wonders on some of the violent, lethargic and epileptic children who were brought in prone as a result of heavy medication. The school has another asset in Miss Chandra, the music teacher. Chandra sings specific ragas for specific effects on children. For example, Bhairavi is known to have controlled drooling, Sivaranjani to bring down aggressive behaviour, Mohanam and Hamsadhwani to treat lethargy, Hindolam to elevate moody children and the simple Sarali Varisai and Jandai Varisai for speech therapy. Padmavathy's eyes sparkle as she talks of 21-year-old Priya who uttered her very first word ever - 'Amma'- in Happy School.
Even as she is talking to me, the children arrive one by one. She notices everything, right up to a missing button on a child's shirt, which she asks a helper to stitch on at once. The children sing prayer songs and Vedic hymns, dance and learn as the morning wears on. Soon it is lunch time. Padmavathy has prepared 'Ashta choorna' powder, and 'Adai' made of 'Vallarai' greens. And the children and the teachers have lunch together, squatting on the clean floor. I take leave, wishing I could spend more time with the happy children and I shoot one last question, "Happy School?" Padmavathy laughs and reveals that a special child chose the name, which the child is said to have added with an explanation - "because we are happy here".
For more details
contact:
Ms.Padmavathy
Happy School
A4, Saradha Apartmants
7, Sringeri Mutt Road
Abhiramapuram, Chennai
Ph- 4953769
