Hearing impaired Ahmedabad girl wows the world

HIGHLIGHTS

• Rachna D Shah was born with 100% profound hearing loss
• She dances, sings classical and folk songs, plays the harmonium and holds a first class B Tech degree
• With speech therapy and training, she can speak, read and write in Gujarati, Hindi, Sanskrit and English

AHMEDABAD: A girl from the city born with severe hearing deficiency has made a landmark achievement by getting registered in the Limca Book of Records-2017, and that too for dancing, singing and playing harmonium. People who watch her perform, say that she can see music.

On the 222nd page of LBR-2017, it reads, "Rachna D Shah of Ahmedabad was born with profound hearing deficiency, but with speech therapy and training, she can speak, read and write in Gujarati, Hindi, Sanskrit and English. She dances, sings classical and folk songs, plays the harmonium and holds a first class B Tech degree."

No one who knew her in childhood could have guessed that Rachna, now 23, would become a 'Sangeet Visharad' and a 'Bharatnatyam' dancer.

When Rachna was born with 100 % profound hearing loss, her mother Gyaneswari Shah did not lose courage. She first provided hearing aids to Rachna and then made her listen to classical music. Rachna began to respond positively and thus began her journey in music and dancing. With great perseverance, she achieved the highest degrees in music and dancing offered in the city.

"When she started growing, we felt that she was not responding to us when we called her. Later on, the doctors detected profound hearing loss," Rachna's mother Gyaneswari recalls. Six months after getting hearing aids, she started speaking a word or two, said Gyaneswari.

On the musical journey of Rachna, she said, "We first introduced her to the world of music as part of her therapy. Doctors told us either to start with music or dance, and we preferred dance. Over the years, she started developing interest in music too." "At the age of six, she gave her first stage performance, and after that she did not look back," Gyaneswari added.

Rachna completed learning Bharatnatyam at the age of nine. She also got Sangeet Visharad certification from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya. She can play and sing eight classical ragas, her mother said.