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Trained on village fields, Lucknow’s tiny tots make it to ‘India’s Got Talent’
Underprivileged children aged between three and seven from Lucknow, India, have impressed judges on reality show 'India's Got Talent' with their gymnastic skills. The children, who are trained by self-taught coach Sonu Rawat, do not have access to professional training due to their low-income backgrounds. Rawat has trained them in a village using basic facilities such as a dilapidated hall and iron weights. The children have been cleared for the next round of the show. Rawat aims to bring sports to the village and train the children for the Olympics.
LUCKNOW They are deft, they are agile, and they have got the moves to sweep you off our feet but here’s the best part -- they are all less than eight years of age. This city-based group of underprivileged children -- aged between three and seven years -- is making ripples in the entertainment and sports world with its gymnastics prowess.
Trained by self-taught coach Sonu Rawat in the jungle of Sarosa-Bharosa, a small village near Mohaan Road, these kids on Wednesday stunned the three judges -- Kirron Kher, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, and Badshah -- of the famous reality show ‘India’s Got Talent’. Amazed by their gymnastic moves in the first round, the judges gave these children a ticket to the show’s second round as well. The first round, which is reportedly in the pre-production stage, will soon be aired on TV.
Behind their success is a story of grit and self-belief. Born in low-income families, all the children in the group go to government schools. The youngest of them -- 3-year-old Avi Gautam -- is yet to start the schooling phase of his life. Nevertheless, Avi too has undergoing gymnastic training for six months now under coach Sonu. The others in the group have been sweating it out with the coach for an even longer duration.
The training has made them all so good that these kids don’t even blink before a backflip or a handstand. The coach has also taught them how to do the windmill, the flare, the cartwheel, and the footwork. A few of them can even do 20 consecutive air flares along with a head spin, leaving the spectators in disbelief.
As most of their parents are daily wage workers, they can’t afford professional training from any academy or institute. Therefore, all these kids were trained by coach Sonu in the Sarosa-Bharosa jungle. When it rains intensely, the practice sessions move into the local community centre with bare minimum facilities. They had to use a dilapidated hall as a gym and spared iron weights as dumbbells during their training.
Their recent success has buoyed the spirit of the children’s group and the coach. When asked to comment, Sonu, who is currently in Mumbai, told HT (over the phone), “It is a dream come true as our hard work is finally bearing fruits. The judges here were amazed to see these little children. Based on the performance, we have been cleared for the next round of the show). Now, we’re aiming to put on a good show in the next round as well. We’re the only team from Lucknow and even Uttar Pradesh here.”
Sharing more about his innovative ways of training the kids, Sonu added, “We dug pits to practice push-ups, used bamboo and rods to make them dumbbells for biceps curls, and an abandoned hall in the village was converted into a practice hall by laying down rubber pads.”
When asked about his own journey, Sonu said, “I wanted to be a gymnast but could not pursue professional training due to financial constraints. I even went to the Allahabad Gymnast Academy but it was beyond my reach due to the expenses associated with it. So, I returned to my village and started training there. This motivated a few children to participate and thus, our journey began.”
Currently, Sonu is training as many as 35 children from underprivileged backgrounds. Sonu trains them at his institute -- JMD Sports Academy. “My aim is to bring sports to our village so that the village children, who are deprived of many things, do not fall into wrongdoings such as intoxication. It is heartening to see that even the people, who are uneducated and financially weak, are sending their children for training after school. The long-term goal is to train them for the Olympics. I want to do something for them that I could not do for myself,” said Sonu.
