Anjali Menon's lesson for life

Director Anjali Menon

that she learned it is “okay not to be like everyone else around you”, though she learned this the hard way, following a Class I assignment. The teacher had asked the class to write about their best friend, and quiet Anjali, whose friends were “imaginary” ones, decided to write about ‘Sleeping Beauty’.

But when she happily submitted her assignment, her teacher mocked her efforts, she writes on her blog. “But fortunately I have also had teachers who inspire and impart what they know and yet allow us to grow our own thought and philosophy,” she writes.

“Fast forward to today: I write my own characters and they are my best friends. I trust them and protect them like I would my dearest friends. Today I am thankful that I wasn’t like everyone else in that first grade class,” she says, in a lesson for anyone whose self-esteem is given a beating by someone else.