Snippets of Information
Achievements - Dance
*23 Aug 2025
Nivriti,
or Nivi as she is fondly called, is a bilateral cochlear implant
recipient who was born profoundly deaf. Yet, on that stage, you would
never have guessed the struggles she has had to overcome. You would only
see the clarity of her lines, the conviction in her abhinaya, and the
poise of a seasoned performer.
Bharatanatyam, as we all know, is deeply rooted in rhythm, subtle
auditory cues, and complex layers of live music - vocals, mridangam,
nattuvangam, veena, flute, and more. For someone like Nivriti, decoding
these sounds is a challenge most of us cannot even begin to imagine. But
she, her mother and teacher Aishwarya Chakravarthy, and an incredible
support team found their own path. When the world didn't have a map for
her journey, they drew one.
The cochlear implant, as many know, bypasses damaged parts of the ear
and stimulates the auditory nerve directly. But music through this
system can often sound flattened, distorted, or altogether
indecipherable. Yet Nivriti, aided by a two-channel DM system custom
engineered for her, performed with an awareness and response that was
nothing short of astonishing.
Her team channeled two distinct audio streams - one carrying the main
vocals and rhythmic instruments, and the other dedicated to cues from
her mother - into her processors. During the most challenging jathi
sections, where the nattuvangam needed to be audible to the audience,
Nivi relied entirely on her muscle memory, built over countless hours of
practice, and real-time visual cues streamed from a camera fixed on her
mother to a monitor in her line of sight. This camera wasn't hidden. It
was deliberately placed so she could read her mother's lips and facial
expressions to stay on beat.
Instead of receiving gifts, Nivriti and her family raised over $15,000
for hearing impaired children in India, in collaboration with AIM for
Seva.
Source: When determination dances with technology by Madurai R. Muralidharan, narthaki.com, June 28, 2025 (Text and image)
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