YOUNG ACHIEVER

HL: Little Miss Bright Spark!

Gunjan Pande/TOI Gurgaon Plus

INTRO: You can either be a bookworm or an athlete.Industrious or fun-loving. The Literature kind or the Mathematical mind. Right? Wrong! And here's Urvashi
Uberoy to prove it…

Take a load of this: At just 9-years of age, Urvashi, a Class IV student at Excelsior, is clear that she wants to write her own autobiography some day. Don't
think that's a kid's empty prattle for the little girl may just surprise you with her voracious appetite for books. And by books we don't mean the girlie stuff. No
Ma'am! This precocious Gemini is more into exploring the dark plots of New York Times best-seller Lemony Snicket or the timeless magic of Frances Hodgson
Burnett, whose Little Lord Fauntleroy when published in book form in October 1886 went on to the bestseller lists alongside Tolstoy's War and Peace and Rider
Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. Urvashi's personal favourites though are Burnett's The Secret Garden and Heidi.

Talking of books, how can we not have a bit of Pottermania. So just like most bookroaches, our little wonder has her collection of Harry Potters alright.
Her favourite in the latest Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the bit "where Harry gets to see Potion's teacher Prof Severus Snape's memories," she
smiles, outlining that she's "quite fond of Hermione Jane Granger because she too loves to read."

In fact if one compares Urvashi to her favourite Potter character there are quite a few similarities – both are very studious, have a thirst for knowledge and are intelligent beyond their years. "That's true," says Shalini Nambiar, Director, Excelsior School,
"behind her solemn facade lies a mind which is quick thinking, imaginative, prolific, industrious, witty and humorous." Urvashi's many academic achievements
prove that -- certificate for young authors (KG and grade-1), certificate for good behavior (KG) and outstanding performance in the 9th NSO 2006…National
Science Olympiad, an all-India level examination in which 2,40,000 children participated from all over the country (Urvashi secured the 276 rank).

And yes we haven't forgotten she's an all-rounder. Her favourite atheletes? "Justin Henin, and Roger Federer," says the leggy Urvashi, who's quite a pro at golf and tae-kwon-do too apart from tennis of course." Her latest fad though is her new bike," says proud mama Ritu. Is that all or have we missed anything? Just that Urvashi's also walked the ramp, won accolades in a poetry reading, compared school events and wrote her little synopsis on Jane Austin's works recently!

Another facet of this multi-talented bundle of energy that also needs mentioning is that "Urvashi is a good human being," points out Shalini. "On the school sports day while all the children were trying to do their best in the three-legged race, Urvashi deliberately chose to partner a child who she knew would never be able to run fast enough to win." But that's Urvashi – a little girl who loves her visits to Landmark and the Traffic Park, who can live on spaghetti with mushroom sauce, is very fond of her black and pink dress, but at the same time has such a thirst for knowledge that it's difficult to believe she's just a 9-year-old!