A Visit to Bhavani Vidyalaya - An Eye Opener

A school in Jaipur which focuses on teaching autistic and specially-abled children is using a variety of traditional board games to tap into the inner energies of these children.

Board games whether oriental or occidental are now being used to arrest the progression of several forms of dementia including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Medical journals like the Lancet and Jama have in the recent past carried articles about controlled experiments conducted on patients diagnosed with dementia. The latter were taught to play a variety of board games for a period of several months and they were tested for any changes in the neural and motor skills. It was found that there was a marked improvement.

Back in India, in Jaipur, there is this wonderful organisation, Bhavani Vidyalaya which works exclusively with children with autism, dyslexia and a host of other related ailments. The founder of Bhavani Vidyalaya, Smt. Vimala Venkatesan, and a team of teachers and volunteers have dedicated themselves to the cause of these children.

Smt. Vimala Venkatesan learnt about Kreedaa Kaushalya through internet and came down to Mysuru in 2013 exculsively to visit our exhibition. On seeing a huge collection of board games there, she came up with the idea that children playing these games could improve their neural and motor skills including life skills.

She bought dozens of these games from us. She also learnt to play all these games at the play-section in our exhibition. She is now using these traditional board games to encourage the learning process in the children at her special school. There are regular sessions of playing board games for these specially-abled children.

Raghu and I visited this school on 11 January 2017. It was a very cold day, Smt. Vimala Venkatesan treated us with tea and snacks. She and her teachers gave us a pleasant surprise by organising an impromptu board games play session by the children of the school.

The lady in orange saree and fawn coloured shawl is Smt. Vimala Venkatesan

Photography: Raghu Dharmendra