It was interesting to watch Rohit preparing for that. He had just one day to prepare. First he opened YouTube and searched for “How to make Puppet”. He got few video links. He started watching the first one, after watching for few minutes he stopped that and told that the items required for making puppet had few things which we didn’t have at home. (It was raining heavily, so he knows that he cannot go out and buy anything).
He moved on to next couple of videos, he carefully watched what are the materials required, based on that he skipped few of them. He got one Video which had the simple list of materials, so he saw that fully. Then he ran to collect all of them. He tried asking his dad whether he will help in cutting some color papers etc, the answer was a blunt NO. He got upset, but he became normal soon, he started making the puppet. The eyes (buttons) fell down couple of times, he had to redo the whole thing as he didn’t realize that the mouth should be exactly at the heel of the sock. (He had the eyes and nose pasted at the wrong side first).
Finally decent puppet was ready. He had 4 hours left to decide and prepare a story to tell. He asked for suggestion of story. I gave him “The habit of Winning” book by Prakash Iyer and said he can pick some winner story from that book to make his presentation. Again he was looking for help to pick a topic, after receiving a stern look from Kumaran, I kept my mouth shut (As you all may know, it was a tough task for me!!).
He picked the story of Karoly Takacs (Olympics Gold medal winner in Pistol Shooting from Hungary). He would have dreamt to become a pistol Shooter, but will lose his right hand in accident, so he will practice with his left hand and won two gold medals in Olympics. So back to our story, Rohit prepared a short write-up. Interestingly he made it little interactive by asking 2 questions to the audience etc. Once this was done, he had only the travel time to practice his presentation.
Around 10 kids participated and Rohit was announced as the winner. For the first time in the history of Rohit’s life, he has been on his own and succeeded. Thanks to Kumaran for stopping me from spoon-feeding Rohit. May be, I am little late in the game, but understood that my son has grown up and he can be on his own J. I think, he will not be a puppet in my hands anymore J
