City ‘whizz-kid’ wins Rhymes World Cup title

Four-year-old Hasini can sing rhymes after listening to them once.

Hasini Balasa with the title she won at the Rhymes World Cup 2018-19 organised at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Hasini Balasa, a kindergarten student of Pollocks Intelli School, has brought laurels to the city by winning the title at Rhymes World Cup 2018-19 held at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on May 12.

She was adjudged the ‘first runner-up’ at the city-level competition in which 1,800 children had participated and the title winner at the national-level competition (270 participants) held in Bengaluru and finally the title winner at the internationals in Kuala Lumpur, in which 71 children from various countries participated.

Child prodigy

The four-year-old girl can sing up to 30 rhymes, tell the numbers up to 100 and numbers in Hindi up to 30. LKG students are taught the numbers to 20 at the school. She has already bagged nine shields, 13 medals and more than 30 certificates, winning various events at the city and national levels.

Hasini’s parents – B. Ravi Kiran, an assistant professor at GITAM Deemed to be University, and Nandini, a B. Tech graduate – noticed her talents quite early and motivated her to pursue her interests.

“I was amazed at her grasping power when she sang the ‘Harathi’ song of Sri Sai Baba after hearing it just once. She sings film songs after hearing them on TV once and can identify the State capitals on India map,” Ms. Nandini told

The Hindu .

Hasini had participated in a fancy dress competition held at MVR Mall in Visakhapatnam, when she was just two years old.

Her parents had gone for shopping and the showroom announced the competition for children. Though she had no formally training, she participated in the fashion walk and won accolades from the crowd, her mother recalled.

“I was surprised to see her repeating a Sindhi rhyme after hearing it once. I saw an online Sindhi rhyme singing competition, organised by a Dubai-based organisation and sent a recording of Hasini’s rhyme. She got the 9th position in that competition,” Ms. Nandini said.

Hasini’s prizes include first prize at ‘Krishna costume contest-2018’ held by ISKCON, Bengaluru and the first prize in the drawing competition organised by ISRO in October 2018.