Form Morning

Puddi had a performance at her form morning at school – she was part of a puppet dance. She showed us a couple of steps at home, singing the song out loud. Cuute, we thought, and in our usual proud-parents style, looked forward to her performance. She had to go dressed in a very pretty red and yellow costume, with make-up on. Shyly she confided to A while he was dropping her off at school, "Abba, I like make-up! My parents came along for the form morning and we settled in to a long loop of kiddie songs. The show theme was 'A few of my favourite things', meant to encapsulate all the things little kids love.

The first dance was full of kids dressed like bears and monkeys and so on, gamboling and prancing on stage. Very cute but nothing unusual for a kiddie performance. Then came the puppet dance. These kids waddled onto stage exactly like Indian puppets, and once the performance began, we were spellbound. Of course, we were helped by the fact that Puddi was centerstage. But the thing that truly astounded us was how Puddi just upped her level of performance to an unbelievable level – she was the puppet to the life (pun intended!)! She held her body stiffly, moved jerkily, didn't smile and didn't once wonder where we were and try to trace us out. Her entire concentration was purely on her performance and she did it to perfection.

Once the entire form morning was over, all the kids filed out one by one, Puddi amongst them. Very orderly, again she acted like a professional performer and didn't wave out to us or try to catch our eye, even though she knew where we were sitting. And then, just as she was getting off the stage, she turned to us and made a spontaneous gesture with her hands as if she were taking a photograph of us, and jumped offstage.

What had us electrified that day and even today when we think about her performance is how she upped her game at the right moment. She was cute and competent when she showed us the steps at home, but up there, she was something else. Every fiber of her tiny little being was concentrating on the dance and the music, nothing else.

Not only the dance and her talent for it, but the performance showed us many other things about this little girl whom otherwise we just see as a cute, loving sprite. Her power of concentration, her goal-orientation, the perfectionist streak in her, the ability to hit the right level of performance when required…all coupled with a deep sense of fun. We started seeing her in a whole new light all of a sudden, and while of course we adore her, it gave us a new sense of respect for her. Hats off, Puddi!