Of children, self-portraits, paint, mud, sticks and stones

                      The boy who will be superman

This summer, it was a morning well spent with the kids at the Gubbachi Learning Community. After volunteering to spend a few hours painting with the children, I was apprehensive. I'd never worked with children in the pre-teen age group and I didn't speak Kannada too well. How would I manage? Would the children consider the time well spent too, or would they dismiss me as a dead bore?

I needn't have worried. The kids were marvellous. After the initial resistance to my ideas on how they could use whatever they could find around them to paint- including mud, sticks, leaves and grass, they took to it with gusto. 

I asked them to do self-portraits. The girls were tentative at first, but then drew detailed pictures of themselves with grass for hair, leafy jewellery and delightfully direct gazes. The boys all saw themselves as supermen, flowing capes and all, out to save the world. 

It was a heart-warming peek into their world. These were children with an indomitable spirit who given an opportunity, could conquer the world.