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Maheetha Bharadwaj is unlike most other kids.
 A resident of St Louis, Missouri, USA, she is in Chennai for the music season. That is not all. She bagged two awards at the Sri Sumukhi Rajasekharan Foundation’s music fest.
She won the ‘Nada Bala Sri’ for her expertise in playing on the keyboard, on December 9, 2006, and the ‘Nritya Bala Sri’ for her talent in Bharatanatyam, on December 10, 2006.
At age 11, one hardly expects a child to be well-versed in two different streams of the arts and win awards too! But Maheetha has done it!
 But she has always been an exceptional child. She skipped a grade – she went into third grade without completing second grade. “I did two grades in one year of school,” pipes in Maheetha so that we understand the import of what she has done.
Now in the seventh grade in Thomas Jefferson School, she is a wizard with numbers. Yes, her favourite subject is maths. When she moved to the middle school, she was given a maths test and by virtue of scoring high marks, she was put in Honors Algebra I and within a couple of weeks she was given another test and moved to Honors Geometry.
She shows the same kind of dedication and drive in learning the keyboard and Bharatanatyam. Her keyboard guru is Chandrashekar, while her first music guru as such was her maternal grandmother, Meenakshi
Gopalan.
 Her Bharatanatyam guru is Adyar K. Lakshman in India. Following the reverse gurukulam system, her American teacher, the senior most disciple of Lakshman, Sudha Srinivasan, travels from Chicago every other week to stay with Maheetha’s family and teach her
Bharatanatyam.
“She takes lessons in summer and in winter we are here to perform,” explains Mythili, Maheetha’s mother. Maheetha, who has been learning dance from the time she was four, had her arangetram in 2004 at St Louis.
So which does she like more – playing on the keyboard or Bharatanatyam? “I like both of them equally. They are both fun and now that I have more stamina, I enjoy Bharatanatyam also,” says
Maheetha.
 But what would she like to be when she grows up? Pat comes the reply, “A dermatologist or business consultant,” unlike her physician mother and computer consultant father Chandramouli
Bharadwaj.
She is also clear in her mind that she would not be able to devote time to music and dance together in future. It is already a rushed life with schoolwork being heavy. She finds about half-an-hour to practise on the keyboard and spend an hour on dance – once a week.
 She plays tennis in school as that is her fav sport. Not soccer like her sister Meghana, she informs you. She is a part of the chess club in her school and participates in synchronised swim meets representing Missouri.
Oh, I forgot to mention that she also plays the piano and recently passed the Grade-6 level examination conducted by the Royal American Conservatory Examinations, scoring 90 per cent. She has also passed the corresponding theory exam with first class honours and was awarded a medal.
Maheetha has a way with languages too. She speaks good Tamil and attends Latin classes. Finding her good in Latin, her teacher has recommended her name for a Latin competition.
I told you Maheetha is unlike most other kids.
R Chitra
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