They leave you speechless!

The other day while surfing through the channels, a dance reality show on television, Dance India Dance Li'l Masters caught my eye. (And breath!) Two kids maybe around 10 or 12 years of age were all set to dance. The anchor asked them what dance style they were going to perform? The smaller one among the two promptly replied 'Robotics'! The next question thrown at the boy was which song. For a few seconds he was quiet and then he turned towards his mentor sitting with the rest of the dancers and asked very cutely 'which song was it?!' The studio audience, judges and other participants were all in splits and understandably so! But if anyone wrote off the boy at that moment, it would be wrong. Because when he did perform, he performed so brilliantly, you'd have been rendered speechless! The boy did know what he was doing!

Another incident on the same line happened on Masterchef Junior. A 12 year old girl, Isabella, was preparing tzatziki sauce with her lamb pie. Ok if you're still not shocked a small wake up call - a 12 year old girl was preparing pie which by the way turned out to be good! What was I doing when I was 12? Umm I was in class 6 and was fantasizing myself in Hogwarts and loving the pair of Nancy and Ned! Both of which I still do! *Grinning sheepishly*

Getting back to the point where she was making the sauce. One of the judges came and asked her what she was preparing and the girl told him, self-confessing that she couldn't pronounce tzatziki properly! And my first reaction was 'She can’t pronounce it but she can cook it! Unbelievable!'

All these kids reality shows which have once again resurfaced to the television foray both national and international, revealing the immense talent and vast potential which kids have are loved by one and all. The passion they show towards their work and the dedication which drips from every action is way beyond their years!

The kids today have an amazing platform to display their skills at such an early age and I hope these shows do justice to them.

Good luck and best wishes to all the talented kiddies from an ardent, awed and inspired fan! :)

The precious smiles!

My day started like it usually does on all working days. The same rush to leave, inevitably getting late, getting a bus in the nick of time! But it surely wasn't meant to be the same after that.

Travelling in the mornings by bus means lots of school children too. Some travelling with parents, others in groups without any adult. I saw two young boys today in the same bus as mine. As their stop neared, they held each others’ hands and guided themselves through to the swerving bus's door. One of them started rummaging through his pocket for the exact fare when the conductor smiled at them, and said in Bengali, patting their heads, "You don't have to pay the fare. Leave it. Go to school and study properly, both of you."

Smiling at the incident, I forgot about it as quickly as it had happened.

In the evening after leaving from work, I was waiting for a friend. With nothing to do and not wanting to immerse myself in my cell as always, I started looking around. A young couple was having puchkas nearby. A small child, a beggar’s son, maybe around 5 years old, came begging towards the couple. Immediately, without hesitating or thinking twice, the guy handed over the puchka he was about to eat, to the child. The small child walked away with a smile on his face and such excitement in his eyes, it touched my heart!

It was then that I remembered the incident in the morning. 

It is these little things that we notice on and off which can make even a bad day worth remembering! And am I glad that I noticed not one but two such incidents in a day!

It feels nice to see a little humanity, a little humility and a little care when all you keep reading about in the papers are gruesome stories of crime, ego and passion!