Day Out at Aparna Grande - Usha's Dance School

 Usha was one of the brightest, curiousest students I ever had in the Department of Dance (or anywhere else actually). She was always full of questions, doubts, answer, perspectives so much so that I remember telling her to let the others also get a word in. She enjoyed learning, had a huge appetite for learning and would analyse and make sense of what we discussed. Thanks to her energy and her questions, the entire class benefited too.

The students and their parents with their guru Usha (in front row, in white)

After Usha passed out she stayed in touch with me which is a wonderful trait to have. She would invite me to a program now and then which I could not attend unfortunately. But when she told me that she wanted me to speak to her dance school students on the birthday of her guru Late Shobha Naidu garu, I could not refuse. More so since they were shifting to the US for good next month.

The clubhouse at Aparna Grande was an excellent venue. Along with the children, several parents also joined the session. It was fun and interactive and I was quite happy with the flow and how it went - though I could not make them do the goals exercise which I hoped to do. However we discussed what hinders our growth (we do not ask enough questions), what hard work means, how to handle the confusion of making a choice (make one and give it your best - the dots will connect), how one can learn (how to learn anything in 20 hours - Josh Kaufman's TED talk https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=josh+kaufman), how deliberate practice works, how to avoid procrastination (the 2 minute rule, stick to timings, remove distractions), shared my 10x story (how we can get 10x results by using all resources), shared my learning example (how I failed to learn when I was dropped). It was interactive and fun - and we had a Most Foolish Question competition which opened the kids out a bit.

Overall a wonderful experience and I am so glad I went and met Usha, and her students, Hari and Keshav, and the parents. Thanks Usha for the opportunity to share some thoughts with your students.