“EVER since she watched Taare Zameen Par, Sneha feels like a star. All her friends in our neighbourhood also treat her like one,” laughs Anita Nagpal as she watches her daughter being instructed to pose for a picture. The smashingly successful movie about differently-abled children clearly struck a chord with the dyslexic 12-year-old, but long before it became a box-office hit, Sneha had figured out a cure on her own.

She poured herself into pursuing every kind of sporting activity available to her, and a year ago, she became part of the Indian wing of the Special Olympics. Today, she stands confident and self-sufficient, particularly if there’s a hockey stick in her hand. Sneha is a goalkeeper, and earlier this year, she captained the Delhi team to gold in the floor hockey national championship in Shimla.

Next year, she will be undertaking a longer journey, across the oceans, all the way to Idaho in the US. Sneha has been selected for the world winter games in February 2009. “I’m very excited, it’s the first time I will be going so far away from home,” she says, betraying not the slightest hint of nerves.

More confident

“HER father is a keen sportsman, and he has been encouraging her to take up a sport. She is definitely more confident about things as a result of sports. She swims, rides horses, plays tennis, dances… you name it, she does it. I’m not at all apprehensive about sending her on a long trip; she can manage.

“Although she will probably miss her sister the most, even though she’s going just for 15 days,” says her mother, filling in for Sneha’s silences. Aruna is her twin sister, and both the siblings have been adopted by the Nagpal family.

Her mother admits she didn’t quite understand her condition at first, and would lose her patience sometimes. Sneha’s mental age is less than her 12 years, but it doesn’t appear to be a hindrance as she goes about life. A student of Laxman Public School in the Capital, she proudly proclaims mathematics to be her favourite subject, and has her mother shaking her head at her awareness of the latest Bollywood movies. Normal, yet special.