It was a late evening, when my friend and I entered the carnival ground. We roamed through different counters till a small empty dance stage caught our eye. Both of us used to shake our legs at some local night clubs whenever we got a chance. The guy attending the stage told us that it was a contest and we could win a grand buffet at a famous restaurant. The winners were chosen by management using multiple criteria. We decided to enter it and approached the ticket counter. The ticket seller told us that the stage will be open for three participants and not less. Since there were only two of us and when we decided to walk away, a little girl aged around 7 approached the counter.

She was standing on my left side and was interested in taking part in the contest. We had our hopes high again as there were three of us now. As the counter guy were collecting our details, one particular question he asked to the girl puzzled me. “You are alright with dancing, aren’t you?” I was wondering why he would have asked that question. As the girl was standing on my left side, and she was only as tall as my hips, I didn’t realize it. She was disabled on her left shoulder down. Her answer amused me, “I’m totally ok, however I have this small issue with my left arm”. The ticket seller didn’t utter a word and let us enter the stage. By this time, there were a few people ready to watch the showdown. As the music started to play, me and my friend were just standing there looking at each other, the struggle to dance in front of a crowd. However, the little girl had already started tapping her legs to the tune. As her energy grew, we couldn’t help ourselves but flow along with her.

She was not dancing to impress, rather she danced to express her huge energetic heart and we followed her. The music was supposed to end after 5 minutes, but for some reason, it kept on playing and the three of us kept expressing ourselves to each other, ignoring the growing audience. The music finally stopped when there were new participants to take part in the contest. We received a huge round of applause from the audience. While leaving the stage, and having a glimpse at the little girl who was walking away with her mother, I realized something.

“There is some sort of disability in all of us. The only thing that matters at the end is how we accept and overcome it.” ~ Syed Shah