[2] Rekha was the younger of two sisters and her parents were South India while she was looked after mostly by her mother as her father was an Indian air force pilot.
[3] She joined the fine arts academy of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 1976, at a time when the city of witnessing the emergence of a hipster culture and the rise of a number of pre-eminent contemporary artists such as Bhupen Khakhar, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh and Jyoti Bhatt.
[2] In 1977, she married a friend from Thailand who was a foreign student at the university and had a child in the following year named Mithun.
[3] Rodwittiya states that the marriage occurred with the expressed permission of her parents, and that she was diagnosed with infertility issues and recommended to conceive as soon as possible if she were to have a child.
[3] On returning to India, Rodwittiya received a teaching appointment at the MS University of Baroda but it not renewed due to her outspoken feminist views which were considered controversial.