Thank you Sridevi!!

I was reading a blog by a friend where one of the comments reminded me of the kind of opression a child has to go in a family.No these are not physical opression but its sometimes taxing the child's carefree mind so much that he doubts if he was your child or a puppet to entertain others...Yes entertain sometimes by dancing, or singing and not to mention by getting good grades.Good grades are something that the parents think is their birth right to demand from the child where else they forget that they themselves might have not been able to go to a regular college to get their degree.Add to all these a few classes of swimming or salsa or even rock climbing....Lets make the child a better human rather than try and make him/her a superhuman or a machine who is ready to functionally work on commands without the slightest display of emotions.Don't blame the child if he does not emote-you just robbed him of that quintessential part of his.

Whenever there's a party or a get together invariably the child comes under the scanner...All his skills are on display that day and judged by fools who only comment either for the sake of doing it or just to prove their expertise in each subject.I am sure as you read you too would be reminded of your childhood when you were asked to recite the poem or show the latest dance moves that you just learnt-often in front of complete strangers and worse sometimes at equally unknown households on your very first visit.

I remember one of such incident where I was the scape goat. My dad always believed that I had to showcase my talent to everyone.Not that I was born talented but he somehow thought I was better in displaying certain things. Those days I used to do quiet a few moves of break dance.A form made popular in India by the combination of Mithun's pelvic moves and Bappi Lahiri's stolen music.We were on a visit to the place where my dad was posted.That day he had called few of his collegues and their family for dinner as its was their demand to have food cooked by my mom when she was there.

I had got a scolding earlier in the evening over my choice of dress and was in a bad mood which became even more evident from my cheeks which swelled to unequal proportion.Just when the guests were seated and having the initial round of tea my dad summoned for me.I knew what was in store for me next.He proudly declared in front of the gathering that now I will dispaly my break dance much to their delight.What I did next is something I will never forget the rest of my life.I am still laughing at the thought of it when it happened almost 22 years back.What I did as a result of my mood was no where near to describing it as a break dance. I almost ended up doing a Sridevi like naagin dance the only difference was that Sridevi was on the floor gyrating like a snake and I was standing but doing the same.Eventually my dad made me stop on some pretext but the poor audience had no option but to clap to show their encouragement.

Well they left after dinner and so did my further public dispaly of talent.That night it also left through my dads mind out of the door and I was at peace in future whenever such gatherings happened. I still thank Sridevi for those moves or else I would have been doing break dance in front of every tom dick and harry....