Ambition

June 2010... few hours visit to Kolkata on the way back to Bangalore.

It was there proudly put up on a wall by a proud father for his equally so proud son.

This painting was done on a big paper, framed nicely and was showcased in a huge drawing room. But if you ask me it’s just a waste of talent. I could see very well that the kid (my nephew) does have a talent if he has created this on his own. I doubt that it was entirely his art as the proud father told me later that he had a tutor (best in the town) for their children to teach them art. But nevertheless, it was the kid’s hard work and was surely showing on his beaming face, when I told him that the painting is just beautiful.

When I say waste, I may sound rude and may be a bit rebellious… but as a kid I have been through the same and I know so many others, who could not agree more. I was never encouraged to take painting or for that matter any form of art, seriously. It was always a part of my personality but just as a hobby. I do not know and so I don’t speak for my nephew, but I had an undying craving to be creative. So much that I used to help my brother in his craft work. I remember that I used to convert his assignement's B/W Xeroxed pics into colour pics with my 'magic' crayons and it used to feel like an achievement.

When I saw that even though the painting is boastingly put up, the parents actually tried to sideline it…may be to avoid a seed of false hope. All I could hear them talking was about engineering entrance, kid’s coaching classes and even though the kid has practically no time to even look at his watch, his father is not really happy about his preparation. There is so much pressure on kids today to become something in life that unknowingly children get manipulated to think in those lines only. I have nothing against the education, but with the system that provokes an ambition that may not have been mine to achieve in the first place.

Today when people tell me that I should have taken my hobby more seriously, all I remember is of Chennari aunty. She had come to visit us during my med-prep days and had told my mum that why do I need to do medical when I can create magic on paper. I don’t know if I can but that is what I want to do. Today I work just to support myself and I paint because I know that colours do have a story to tell.

If I were that painting I would have been…well really sad!!

I have tried to recreate the image from my memory as a dedication to the beautiful painting I saw and the artist I could not see. May one day the people around that painting, would see the real moments and story behind the painting too.

p.s. I have realized that Canvas is not meant for water colour and am really missing the flow of colours on a sheet of paper.