Saraswathy Lapsia, nee Ramamurthy, started learning Bharatanatyam from Guru Smt. Rajee Narayan in 1975. A dedicated and talented dancer, she performed her Arangetram in May, 1980. At the end of the year, she was adjudged the best dancer and awarded the gold medal, by the Bombay University.

1981 was the International Year of the Disabled Person. In the month of May, under the auspices of the Hubli Round Table and Belgaum Round Table, she gave programmes in aid of the disabled, in Karnataka. Saraswathy gave a special programme for the disabled at the Tata Theatre on June 6th, 1981, when she presented a cheque to Shri Vijay Merchant, President, NASEOH.

Between 1980 and 1983, Saraswathy gave several solo performances in and around Mumbai. She performed for the Mulund Fine Arts Society at their auditorium, Nritya Sindhu at Dinanath Mangeshkar Hall, for Trios at the Karnataka Sangh Hall, The House of Soviet Culture and others.

In 1982, Saraswathy presented ‘Bharati Pamalai’, a special programme, comprising a full margam of compositions of Sri Subramania Bharati at the Shanmukhananda Fine Arts & Sangeetha Sabha, Mumbai.

Between 1982 and 1984, she gave several performances in Chennai, under the auspices of Parthasarathy Sabha, Rasika Ranjani Sabha, Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha and for Madras Doordarshan. She is also a B-grade artiste of Mumbai Doordarshan.

From 1989, Saraswathy started assisting her Guruji in teaching Bharatanatyam at the S.I.E.S. School, Matunga and started the Nritya Geethanjali branch at Colaba. She also started her classes at Chunabhatti, where she trained many students and conducted the first Arangetram in 1994, followed by 5 more Arangetrams.

As a school student, Saraswathy was a keen basketball player. She played mini-basketball for Indian Gymkhana, representing Maharashtra state and won the Nationals, gold medal.

Today, Saraswathy, a mother of two young sons, Harsh and Dhruv, is involved in many social, religious and spiritual organisations, assisting her high-profile husband, Jayant Lapsia, in serving society.

sjhdlapsia@yahoo.co.in