I was born and brought up in Uttar Pradesh, India. I’m Anglo-Indian, so I have a bit of an unusual name for the region.

When I was around 13 years old, I participated in my first classical dance competition. I had been learning Bharatanatyam for a few years by then and my dance teacher felt I was ready to participate in an upcoming dance contest.

I had practised for weeks and was very excited about the contest.

The day of the contest came, and I performed my rehearsed piece. My dance teacher was very happy with my performance.

After my performance, I waited impatiently for the winners to be announced since I thought I might just place in the top 3.

There were a number of performances in other dance categories as well, and the final list of winners was put up on the notice board after lunch.

When I pushed through the crowd to get a clearer look at the notice board, I realized my name wasn’t among the top 3. I checked again. Nope, none of the 3 winners were ‘Lizanne’.

I was disappointed. My parents tried to cheer me up and took me out for ice-cream.

Later that day, I received a phone call from my dance teacher who was excitedly asking me why I had left the venue, and why I hadn’t been there to receive my prize. Apparently, I had won third place.

I was flabbergasted. I managed to stammer, “but my name wasn’t there”.

My teacher was so excited about my win that I don’t think she heard me, and she told me to go the next day and collect my certificate and prize.

When I got there the next day, I went back to the notice board to check the list of winners.

Classical dance category, it said. Third prize: Lijali.

Facepalm.