Robbers in Ramana Thatha’s Ashram

A Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) Exploration

In December, I narrated the story about the white peacock. This month, I chose the story of robbers in Ramana thatha’s (thatha is grandpa in Tamil) ashram. Ramana Maharshi is referred to as Ramana thatha by my teachers.

I started creating a few lessons for the 100-Days of Theater Arts for Holistic Development (TAHD) Lab with my Bharatanatyam teacher Sri Ujwal Jagadeesh of the Ramana Maharshi Center for Learning. That experience led me to narrate my first story in December. TAHD was developed by Dr. Ambika Kameshwar Founder, Director of RASA India.

Theater arts tools
This post shows how all five TAHD tools (movement and dance, music and rhythm, storytelling, dance, and arts and crafts) can be used to explore the story. Watch the video and think about ways to use the five theater arts tools.

Here are some ideas for parents to use the five tools.

TAHD Tool 1. Movement and Dance
In this story, I used karthari mukha hand gesture to show the eyes. The hand gesture was also used to show robbers searching the ashram. Parents can imitate the gestures with their child.

TAHD Tool 2. Music and Rhythm
In the beginning, the hand gestures were shown with music. Parents can imitate the gestures to music with their child. I am including a video of the music and hand gestures only by my teacher. You can read about my teacher here.

TAHD Tool 3. Storytelling
I narrated the story of robbers in Ramana Maharshi’s ashram. The parents can listen to the story with their child. They can also retell the story in their own words for multiple days.

TAHD Tool 4. Drama
It is easy for parents and child to act the story like a drama. For example, one person can be Ramana Maharshi and another one can be a robber.

TAHD Tool 5. Arts and crafts
Thanks to Morpheus Nag and Shubh Pathak for the creative representative in Ramana Thatha’s ashram. Thanks to Morpheus for his depiction of the ashram and to Shubh for the picture of the robber. Parents can explore drawings of people and events in the story.

I recorded my first video on The White Peacock on my birthday. You can read the post here.

Thanks to Shilpi Mayank-Awasthi for encouraging me to blog. Blogging has opened up opportunities for presenting my stories with artwork from the wonderful team of CreativeSaathis. Thus, I can include art and crafts ideas for exploring the story in my blog posts too.

Dear parents, Please use these stories and blog posts created by a team of neurodivergent storytellers and artists with your child. Let us know your thoughts and suggestions!

Author Ananth Raghunandan