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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Que Sera Sera

So once again I am in a parental rut. I keep wondering what should I do to discover my daughter’s natural talent. I am a firm believer of “all of us are talented but some never land up discovering their calling.”

Did Einstein’s or Newton’s parents take their children to numerous classes before the children decided to do physics? Or was it sheer case of genius that the child grew up to be who he was?

I was talking with my brother about Nick Bollettieri. How Agassi, Seles and many other Tennis greats trained under him and became who they were. When my brother stopped me and told me, “Agassi was Agassi in Tennis even before he went to Bollettieri. Nick would not take anyone who he is not sure of to become a legend which is why he has the whole list to boast of. If Nick had to pick someone off the street and make him a champion then I will give it to him but otherwise he is just using already talented and gifted people to further his cause.”

It made so much sense to me. I cannot push my daughter to play tennis if she is not naturally inclined to do so or naturally talented/gifted and I cannot force her to do anything but then how will I find out what she is born to be? What her calling is, because there are many of us who will die without ever knowing what we are good at. And that very thought is scary for me. Obviously I want the best for my daughter.

The reason I thought of this issue is because my daughter is now 2 years and 4 months old. I have to start preparing her for classes and such but then how will I know what classes to choose for her? What if she does not like piano, violin, ballet, bharatanatyam, tennis, kathak, and all other classes I find for her? What if her calling is becoming a cello player and I do not recognize it? Will I waste her life making her like and play piano because I was a bad mom?

Worries and more worries…lets see where the quest takes me.

Love

ART

1 comment:

Suchi said...

Good post Anu. I have wondered the same thing too. Perhaps it's a matter of trying out different things and she will eventually discover it herself. After that point, it's a question of listening to it and acting on it. Instead of say, squishing the dream because we or parents don't think it's worthy enough.

Because frequently, I have seen parents say things along the lines of "but if you pursue that, you won't have a good job/salary/scope etc" and they try to push them into "safe" professions.

Good Luck! I am sure she has some amazing talent and with your willingness as a parent to listen to it, she will do great!