“Life ek baar milti hai; try everything!” is the mantra of this 14-year-old prodigy.

Her father says he doesn’t remember his daughter crawling, that she was a toddler once now surprises him! And when this little girl was only 1.6-year-old, she started attending school. She was so active, always hopping and jumping or dancing on some random beats that her mother arranged a dance teacher for her. Imagine! At age two, this girl was learning dance. But what changed things for this girl was a TV programme by Dr Roop Singh Shekhawat that she wanted to learn Bhavai, a folk dance form of Gujarat.

Even the thought of her 5-year-old-daughter balancing heavy earthen pots on head and swaying with the soles of her feet perched on the top of a glass, the edge of the sword, the tip of the nails or rim of a brass plate scared her to death. It was a clear no! But she is a fighter. She herself practiced balancing books, glass and plates on her head. Seeing her so passionate for it, the poor mother gave up and arranged a home teacher. In 2013, she participated in the International Dance Competition during Green Wood Udbhav Utsav in Gwalior, where participants came from different countries and she stood first. Bringing laurels for India back home at such a young age boosted her confidence and then there was no looking back. She has since then participated in many national and international dance competitions organised by Akhil Bharatiya Sanskrutik Sangh performing Bhavai, Kathak and semi-classical dance forms. Travelling to various countries and winning several competitions have not only improved her dance but have also helped her immensely in sports and academics.

Along with being an impeccable dancer, she is a sports enthusiast. Her mornings start with badminton; she has been the best athlete of her school for the last three years, has represented the school in basketball, swimming and skating at the district level and recently played national level chess junior category. People who meet her often ask what she would become in future – a sports star or a professional dancer. For her, however, dreams lay elsewhere – business. “My father is a businessman and I want to walk on his footsteps,” she says. When she was 12, she went to Amsterdam to see the exhibition of the world’s biggest machines to see how the machines work.

A Versatile Award winner of her school, she suggests students her age to follow their dream, and not others, and requests parents not to have expectations from their children they themselves could not stand up to. “Live and let live,” she says.

She is Anayana Singhvi, a prodigy from India! And we wonder how a 14-year-old child is so mature.