No one knows what future has in store. Parents give birth to children, bring them up with love and care and then expect them to do good in life. Parents always want their children to be successful in every junction of their lives. After all, children are vital to the nation’s present and future. They need to be given equal importance, nurtured delicately and instilled with all true values of life. And just like every child thanks his parents for giving him a good life, all proud parents too should thank their children who have tasted success in life. This Children’s Day — November 14 — Sunday POST shares the stories of a few parents, whose children with their extraordinary talent have made them proud.
Saroj Kumar Pattanaik, an engineer with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Sunabeda, Koraput, was leading a routine life till he discovered a strange talent in his son. At the age of three when children struggle to string words together, Saroj’s son Sai Anish could recognise and identify 60 different brands of cars in less than a minute. Not surprisingly, his incredible ability earned him a place in the Guinness World Records. Today, Sai is five and can identify more than 80 cars in three minutes and six seconds. And for all this, he just needs to glance at a photo or video of the car.
Sai holds three national and 11 international records and finds a place in books like World Genius Records, Nigeria, World Book of Records, UK, Assist World Records, Champions Book of World Records, Innovative World Records and many more. So much so, that he has also been chosen as the brand ambassador of Shemrock Group of Pre-Schools.
“Parents wish to be recognised by the achievements of their children. Sai has made us not only proud but also known faces. I really feel proud when people ask me ‘Are you Sai’s father?’ We faced the camera for the first time for an exclusive show on a news channel because of my son. I can’t forget the day when we got a call from the director and chairman of Shemrock Group of Pre-schools Amol Arora asking us if we would be interested to have Sai as the school’s brand ambassador,” says Saroj.
Sai made possible many dreams of his parents. From rubbing shoulders with people from the world of showbiz to touring various destinations to getting featured in newspapers to appearing on news shows, Saroj and his wife’s lives have changed owing to the talent their son possesses.
“It was only because of him that we got a chance to meet and know singer and music composer Bappi Lahiri at an event hosted by World Book of Records, London where Sai was presented the India Pride award. The music director was all praise for Sai. He even asked Sai to shake a leg with him to one of his songs. It was one of the proudest moments for us as parents,” says Saroj, adding, “We were once going to Berhampur from Koraput. Our co-passengers were a group of youngsters. I saw them whispering in each others’ ears for some time and after a while they came up to me and asked, ‘Are you the father of Sai Anish, who has the rare ability of recognising any car and brand by just looking at its photograph?’ They were so excited to meet us that they started treating Sai like a celebrity. That day I realised that he has become a public figure and people identify us as his parents.”
For a parent there can be no bigger satisfaction that seeing his or her child making a name in society. Meet Sribali Das, who is a star in her own right. Sribali is a singer, dancer, model and anchor and excels in playing multiple musical instruments.
The Class IV student of DAV School (Unit-VIII), Bhubaneswar, was recently adjudged the first runner-up in the Princess Category at Junior Model International beauty pageant held in Dubai. Today, Sribali is no less popular than a film star, with media.
Her father, Manoj Das, a senior executive in a public limited company, never thought that he would start getting celebrity treatment that too because of his nine-year-old daughter. However, Manoj says that he enjoys it and at the same time is proud of his daughter. “Sribali is a gifted child. We never forced her into anything. We just try to keep her requests. When she wanted to learn music we took her to singer-composer Abhaya Malla to teach her music and keyboards. She also recorded her first album Sai Baba, Bhola Baba under his guidance, which went onto become a hit,” says Manoj.
Sribali studies in a school that boasts 8,000 students. Manoj says that every time he visits his daughter’s school, he gets mobbed by the other parents. “This in itself makes me feel proud. People know me as Sribali’s father. What else can a parent ask for? She developed modelling skills on her own by watching YouTube videos, reached the finals and came in second all on her own merit. We had recently gone to a city mall where Sribali was scheduled to be interviewed by a television channel. We had reached a bit early and were waiting when a lady who was trying to approach us for a while came up to Sribali and asked for an autograph. That lady stays in Hyderabad and is a big fan of Sribali and her bhajans. She said that she also follows my daughter on Facebook. We had never realised that her popularity has grown so much. In fact, today we are famous as her parents,” says Manoj.
Simran Das is not only a star but in a great way responsible for running her household. No, she isn’t working because she is a Class IX student but her popularity helped her mother Sagarika get a job after the sudden demise of her father.
Simran became a popular face on Odia television after appearing in shows like Indian Idol, Voice of Odisha, Prathama Swara and Antakshari. She has to her credit six bhajan albums and numerous awards, something that can only make her mother proud.
“Her school is 50 kilometres from our house. It takes a lot of time commuting but she never skips her riyaaz. I didn’t know that her name was popular among the who’s who of the music industry, till one day I received a call from music director Jeet Baral. I asked him how he knew my daughter’s name, to which he said, ‘Your daughter has become a star.’ That was the best day of my life,” says Sagarika.
Today, every time Sagarika steps out of her house she is identified as Simran’s mother. “Her popularity has not only made me a known face but also has saved our family. I had no clue how to run our household after her father passed away two months ago. But Simran came to my rescue. Her school authority offered me a job after they came to know that I was her mother. Her contribution to our family is more than mine. I can’t be more proud of her,” says Sagarika.
Odisha High Court advocate Kishore Kumar Mishra is a known name in his fraternity. However, today he is not popular only as an ace lawyer but also because of his daughter, who is a painter par excellence. Kishore and Seema Mishra’s daughter Shreya, a Class IX student of DAV Public School, CDA, Cuttack, is only 13 years old but is considered one of the post promising artists in the state art circuit.
“I was once accompanying my son with Shreya in to a painting competition. The subject was blood donation. Suddenly, Shreya came to me requesting that she too wants to participate in the competition. I enrolled her name. She came up with a beautiful painting of a person donating blood lying on a bed. Actually, a few days ahead of the competition, she watched how her grandfather was administered blood. She made a painting based on that and eventually attracted the attention of painter and former president of Lalit Kala Akademi, Shiva Prasad Panigrahi. He suggested us to put her into an art school. Since then Shreya has won several competition,” says Seema.
Today, Shreya is one of the most promising young painters. And with her growing popularity, her parents too have become prominent faces in society. “We really feel proud when we accompany her to any art competition and people straightaway identify us as Shreya’s parents. More than addressing us by our names people now identify us as her parents. It indeed makes us proud,” says Seema.
RASHMI REKHA DAS, OP