The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star — Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

These words hold especially true for a young lad of 16 who believes in spreading happiness and magic through his cakes and brownies. But the initial road to success for him was not very smooth as he lives in a society where success is measured by how good a child is in his studies and where talent and ability are measured by the marks on the report card.

The young lad in question is Taha Zohaib Salem, a soft spoken, young man from the Bohra community.

Taha’s flair for creativity and interest in trying out new baking recipes was first noticed by his father Zohaib when the boy was 10 years old. Taha happened to barge into the kitchen to get something for himself when he got drawn to the wonderful chocolaty smell wafting in the air. His mother was baking a cake and that’s when he fell in love with the taste, texture and processes involved in baking a cake.

From thereon, Taha was constantly stepping forward to help his mother when she was baking. His initial attempts to beat eggs and flour were clumsy with Taha not being able to get the right consistency of the batter and getting flour all over himself and the kitchen counter making quite a funny picture. His attempts were met by howls of laughter from his younger sister, but that did not deter him from learning how to bake; rather it motivated him to try even harder. He slowly and steadily mastered each and every process associated with baking a yummy cake.

However, with all the delights that he experienced while baking, the young lad had to experience a stream of ridicule and even criticism from his extended family and neighbours as they could not fathom why a young, energetic boy was indulging in activities that would, in their opinion, be more suitable for girls. Some people even felt that his parents should be strict with him and force him to pursue a noble profession like medicine, engineering, etc. as per the prevailing norms.

But what people failed to realise and still do is that with changing times and rampant competition, children feel burdened by the constant pressure exerted on them by parents, family and sometimes teachers and that proves detrimental to their growth. People should understand that every child is special and comes with a unique package full of strengths and weaknesses.

Taha is one such successful case where his interests and talents were addressed at the right time and place and hence a path was carved for him. But there are countless other children in our country who are not as lucky;  and do not find that kind of support from their parents and peer.

Keeping in mind the UN Convention of Rights of the Child, it is imperative that elders understand that once your child finds a skill or you stumble across their talent, you should not support them with excessive praise but give them opportunities to enhance their natural gifts, such as taking baking classes, or learning music and art, etc.

And with the right support, there will be numerous other successful talents like Taha who will do their families, the society and their country proud.

— Durray Sadaf