Imperfection is cute

Yes, you guessed it right, I am going to talk about cute little kids. Today I attended annual day at my son’s school and don’t know why I was quite teary eyed from the first performance. This is my second year and I thought I will not be overwhelmed, but here I am again. Next year, I will surely get a box of tissues.

So, it started with my son’s playgroup annual day. Those who have kids, this may sound familiar. First year in school, attendance is erratic, cold and fever are more consistent. So my son missed two weeks of dance practice and dressed rehearsal. So my mature mind told me not to send him for stage performance. Obviously, he missed the practice, he won’t be able to perform. So I thought of informing his teacher. But what she said was a pleasant surprise. She said just send him for final dance, give him opportunity to perform. They need not be perfect.

So here comes annual day, we spend 2 hrs. of time calming a toddler who did not want to wear a red shiny shirt and black silk pants. We bribed him in every way, like you wear this new dress and we can go to birthday party, you will get a cake. Nothing worked. He chose the most faded dress to wear and was ready to go to a park to play. We reached the venue, and was embarrassed to see a lady who dressed up her twins, all by herself. I had an army at home, who failed to dress a two and half year old kid. I avoid looking at mothers who have dressed up too, and were looking pretty. I did not need to paint my face, it was already pink with shame. Finally I accept the defeat and handover my son to his teacher along with shiny dress.

After that tiring dressing up session, I gave up on any hopes on performance. I settled in my seat and in no time I was enjoying the performances. My eyes filled up with joy. Those small wonders enjoyed themselves on the stage, they forgot steps, and they were not in sync. All that they did is just watch each other, copy the steps but never gave up. Even if they stopped, it was simple, pick up again and start dancing. There was a dance step where they needed a partner, they turned and made pairs. But two at both ends were left alone, teachers quickly stepped up, joined them as partners and left the floor as soon as that step was over.

There were small skits where they forgot dialogues, or visual behind was not synchronized or mike did not work. Little children promptly offered to help each other. They offered their mike, they fixed it for each other. They prompted dialogues to them. These may sound small gestures, but these are heartwarming.

In fact, I thought I will go there, just cheer my kid and come back. But no, it is much more than that. Yes my son performed too, how well? Honestly it didn’t matter. No, I am not making an excuse. I do believe it now, what matters to me is my son is surrounded by people who want him to join the dance, whether he dances well or not. I feel anyone who gets such a company is blessed.

Don’t we all grown-ups miss this? Remember a friends group where your success or failure doesn’t matter. That first team, who still pull your leg for a mistake you made while writing a program, but they worked on fixing it whole night. I still remember the one where I made a presentation nervously, and finished it in no time. My friends didn’t even realize that I presented two different applications. And that one incident is stuck with me, every gathering it is recited, just in case anyone has forgotten the minute details. But what nobody knows is same friends worked hard to help me improve on my presentation skills and confidence.

So today again, it was same day and same situation. My son missed all the practice, and we still went ahead to attend his annual function. With one difference, we did not even try to dress him up at home, two hours saved. It’s a mighty hard job to handle one toddler. I admire how all the teachers, work hard with every kid, and still are not at all grumpy when kids are not perfect. But I request them to be just that, coz we all have seen many perfect performances and never been this moved. They are truly nurturing kids to be happy and not to be perfect. Thank you teachers, for teaching us, imperfections are cute. Perfection do not lead to happiness.

These annual day gathering are like a visit to a fantasy land, where I would have rather loved to live all my life. But it was not to happen, and I am back to my world, where I will produce a report today to show how every defect was not because of me or my team, and in doing that I will make sure to pass the blame on every possible living creature, or may be even God. And of course I will summarize this to highlight, how perfect we are.

Sadly I will have to live in this perfect world till school invites me again. Let’s pray, May God bless us with a world full of imperfect creatures.

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