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'Down', but not out!
 Revathe Thiagarajan (24) is a phenomenon, a girl with special challenges, one too many, but all the same, she s a multifaceted personality with amazing proficiency in several fields like dance and sports.
Facts have to be faced and lived with, especially if you are afflicted with Down's syndrome, and if you have to impress others with only your immense courage, unflinching determination to succeed in your chosen vocation, where your beauty, talent and purity have to radiate from within alone.
On Aug. 27 at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Sri Venkata Auditorium, Mylapore, Revathe surpassed all normal expectations and belied all understandable fears. She danced for a full two hours an entire 'Margam' on par with any other less-challenged and well trained student of Bharatanatyam, during the course of which recital, every movement of her dance, hasta mudra, thaalakkattu, adavu, jathi, arudhi, facial expressions et all asserted unequivocally her strength of conviction, "I can, I will". Bravo!
 She danced the complete gamut of a structured bharatanatyam recital - Pushpanjali (Nattai:Thalamalika), Alarippu (traditional: Tisranadai), Varnam (Ragamalika-Adi), Thillana (Yamuna Kalyani- Adi) and a few other less taxing numbers in Sindhubairavi (Tisranadai), Madhyamavathi (Adi) and Ragamalika. She was phrasing the words of the songs through lip movements while dancing, in order not to miss her steps! She was truly focussed and wholly engrossed in her own performance. That was the secret of her pronounced success that evening.
True, you have to be an objective critic with proper perspectives to appreciate Revathe's command performance (God's own command), so to say. Mind you, this performance is the culmination of 14 years of intensive training from her internationally acclaimed guru,
 Dr. Ambika Kameshwar, the pioneer of "Theatre for Holistic Development', and 'Rasa' Director. She was able to impress a house-full audience successfully on that Wednesday.
A student of Mathru Mandir (School for children with Down's syndrome), run by Chairperson Rekha Ramachandran, Revathe has represented India, in Volley Ball in the International Special Olympics, 2003, at Dublin and won a credit worthy placing. That is the kind of girl she is! The Union Sports Ministry has presented her with a cash award of Rs.15,000/- in recognition of her unique achievement.
 Chitra Visveswaran, the eminent danseuse was the Chief Guest, Rekha Ramachandran was the Guest of Honour and Justice P. Bhaskaran, Chairman, Loss of Ecology Authority, felicitated the artiste. Revathe honoured her accompanists gracefully as a dancer should. Ambika Kameshwar (Choreography, nattuvangam and vocal), Uma Namboodripad (vocal support), SSR Krishnan (Mrindangam), Nagaraj (violin) and Bhagyalakshmi (flute) performed well, while Ashwini Vishwanathan compered the programme elegantly.
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