Appreciated by all

It was a big day for a little girl, Ahana who wanted to be a dancer. At the age of 7 she was sent to a dancing school to learn ‘Kathak’, one of the Indian forms of dancing. During the first few dancing classes she didn’t like the steps which her dance teacher instructed her to follow. Ahana, started complaining to her mother that it is a boring form of dance and always have to be cautious with her steps. Her mother got puzzled but didn’t have any solution for her daughter’s problem. Rather, she didn’t understand what her daughter liked and preferred to ignore since, they wanted her to gain merit in studies and not develop a skill in dancing.  Her parents thought it would be a kind of recreation for her daughter as she liked dancing, so put her in a dancing school not thinking how much she will like the form of it. On the other hand, Ahana was not at all pleased with her dancing steps and before entering her dancing school she always prayed to God saying that, “God, save me today if I forget the steps”.
These prayers continued for about two months and didn’t halt before the Durga Puja. There was a small stage show organized by Ahana’s residential community people during the Puja festival.  The show was held after the day, Dussehra, (killing of the demon by Goddess Durga). Most of the children in her community participated; even the aunts and uncles of their community were few contestants. Not only the festival fever but it was another celebration day for them too. Ahana was lucky enough to participate and got an opportunity to dance a free style form, which she rehearsed in one of the latest bollywood music at that time. At beginning her parents didn’t like the idea of her dancing in a filmy tune but later, she was convinced by other parents, saying that its ‘just’ for fun.
Since, it was Durga Puja, one of the news channel from the media were visiting each pandals for airing a show on the festive through their channel. .While visiting, the community puja pandals, they approached Sarovar Residential committee’s Durga pandal and learnt that a small event will be taking place by their community. It was a pleasant moment for the members specially, the kids who participated and for Ahana too. After 2 dance events, it was Ahana’s turn to show her talent on the stage. Her dance was praised by most of the audiences as she danced with a smiling expression on her face. She danced blissfully along with the background tune and didn’t failed to miss any steps which she disliked during ‘Kathak’. The channel people liked the event and appreciated her performance and further decided to record her dance for their channel as they were looking for young talent. Not only did the channel gained a high TRP rate that night, they also introduced Ahana as a participant in their coming dance show which was broadcasted after few months. Her dance was appreciated by many and she also realised her wish to be true. After the show her parents understood that she was more for freestyle dance than ‘Kathak’. They also started to feel that dance was no more a source of recreation but something that Ahana always desired and loved to do.
This story predicts that parents should never force or inclined their kids to choose an activity that their children never liked to do. If they encourage, it should be the one that their kids enjoyed doing it. Parents may create a space and give their child an opportunity to speak about what they feel and like to be in future. This will help the children to be happier than many who are not today.