The In-house Picasso

05/06/2006

Our little three year old was never into painting or colouring so far..His paternal grandfather and chittappa are really good artists and I was hoping that he would pick up that trait from them. But I guess he is more like his amma who cant even draw a straight line with a ruler (Aah the genes!!).

Diagrams and me are poles apart. One of the main reasons for choosing computer science in the 11th standard was to escape from the torturous sessions of drawing diagrams in records. My mum was quite confident that I may not pass my biology practical exams in the 10th public exams that she spent two solid days teaching me to draw the cockroach and frog diagrams. The difficulties that I had in convincing the external examiner that what I had drawn was indeed a frog are a totally different story.

My little rascal has so far not shown any interest in painting whatsoever. The closest that he has done is to sit beside an adult and tell them what to draw and generally supervise. Our typical Sunday afternoon would be kuttan and me sitting on the dining table with paint box and accessories and a big white paper. His standard request would be to draw a triangle and the 'Thomas train'. Though my paintings would pass for a triangle, all my attempts of the Thomas train has never met his approval so far..

He will study my train for a minute or two with a frown on his face and then in an attempt to get the point across would tell me slowly and clearly 'No amma, I saiddd Thomas train'. (Flash back in my mind of the biology practicals examiner).

I was really surprised therefore when he was waiting at the door of the art room at nursery, hands and clothes covered with paint and beaming with pride. He dragged us to the art table. I have drawn a picture, he cried gleefully. Perhaps the genes haven't failed us after all, I thought. Now I was really curious to see what this picture was and we were sure that it would definetly be much better than the exam frog that his amma drew.

This is what he showed us:


Most of the famous arts are abstract. May be if I stare at this one all day long, I can decipher this painting, read the artist's mind, his take on world poverty or appreciate the use of colours. But I'm no connoisseur, and yet this picture means a lot to me.

'Be careful with the picture appa, he warned.. Its mine! He proclaimed. I asked him what he had drawn.. Oh the list was large. This picture above, according to him represented his amma, his daddy, a snake, an elephant, a tiger and his favourite Thomas train all rolled in one. As I stood there staring at his art, kuttan gave me a hug and announced, you can have this amma, this is my present for you!!!!!!! Now that made my day. I pulled him close, kissed his cheeks, and thanked him for the picture.

What a beautiful end to the otherwise long and tired workday.