Drawing Competition

It is with great pride and joy that I narrate my experience about a 'Drawing Competition' that my daughter participated in Pune that truly drew the crowds to her work. The competition, organized by Maharashtra Times in five different venues at Pune, saw a large gathering of enthusiastic children of various age groups between 8 to 13 years. All children were engrossed in their artistic skill while the parents kept an eye on their ward and chatting with other parents.

The appointed photographer had a great landscape to capture; with innocent faces, concentrated eyes and busy hands, the children provided him with a perfect blend of emotions to be clicked. Though, I noticed the photographer quite away from my daughter to notice her work, which I otherwise would have loved to be clicked.

Anyway, after about an hour to spare, my daughter had nearly completed her painting when one good observant lady pointed her out to others, mentioning the beauty of the painting. A group of people soon started to notice her and her work. I was an observer to this; all the while feeling very proud and happy; I resisted from mentioning our mother daughter relation, for I wanted to soak in each and every compliment given to her. At last, when the people had settled and nothing more was to be said, I mentioned casually that the girl they were talking about is my daughter. All mentioned that indeed my daughter has exceptional talent. Parent who were into similar area, even pointed out that the techniques used by her are quite difficult to learn and implement.

At the end of the drawing competition, I realised that one participant had succeeded in drawing not only a beautiful picture but also had drawn together all strangers in their admiration of her drawing. 

Cartoon Footprint

The current times have seen a tremendous growth, effect and implications of the animation industry. No wonder that then I felt it absolutely necessary to understand the impact of this in our daily life. I am talking about the CARTOONS in all its forms and the joy it has brought or taken away from us. A baby is first introduced to the cartoon characters in the first few days itself. All baby things like clothes, bottles, nappies, toys etc have atleast one cartoon character on it. Not to forget that even we admire such designs. The craze for the cartoons is thus set because not only is it attractive for its colours, but it also means that the baby has been introduced to a friendly version of the animal kingdom. As a child, we will realize that all kids things like pencil, eraser, pencil box, lunch box, watter bottles etc have the cartoons imprinted. Over a few years, this cycle is repeated, very much like 'History repeats itself'.

The animation industry too has bloomed through its advanced techniques as shown in motion pictures, serials etc so much so that at times it takes an effort in identifying the real world from the animated version. The concept of being kind to animals is cleverly shown through the introduction of talking animals. No wonder that kids expect animals to do the talking !! Movies like Lion King, Happy Feet, Madagascar etc have indeed brought out the problems and difficulties faced by the flora and fauna; which is an eye opener for us all, but at the same time the younger generation is mislead from the hard realities of the jungle life that the animals face.

The amount of effort put in by various technical and non technical people in coming up with innovative ideas, is huge. At the same time, the resources developed and utilized for maintaining such ideas on animation; is large. A rampant use of resources has increased the carbon foot print all over the world. A recent news about a giant balloon on a minion (cartoon character) interested me. The huge balloon had collapsed on a busy road and had brought the entire traffic to a stand still till the balloon could be removed. Such a huge cartoon footprint surely needed a mention in the daily worldly reporting. And this makes me wonder about the enormity of the situation that we have actually initiated and developed.       

Stealing Time

I enjoy reading literature, novels, science fiction etc. which at times makes me so much engrossed in the book that I am oblivious to my surrounding. This hobby of mine was though kept in the closet as the demands from the job and family grew and continue still, though their nature has changed. Now with a teenage daughter, I have found myself with some time to pursue this hobby of mine during 'my' time which I manage to find when either all are watching TV or I am not in the kitchen. Frankly speaking, I also enjoy watching TV but I am not a couch potato. So I am gifted with 45 minutes or so when I engross myself in the book.

I have read many books on / by Three Investigators, Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Agatha Christie, Sidney Sheldon, Sudha Murthy, Dan Brown, Chetan Bhagat etc.
I also remember the school library where things used to be proper and books were revered. We used to have a library class when the books had to be selected as per our roll numbers. The last of the number students got less popular books. It was one such day when I was left with a book titled 'Scarlet Pimpernel'. The name and author were not known to me but anyways, reading came naturally to me and by the time I had finished reading it, I was glad that I was given the book. Till date the book still remains in my memory and I enjoyed reading it.

The same situation now presents itself these days, when my daughter gets such lovely books from the school library that I read them within a week. In fact, I have started looking forward to Mondays when a new book will reveal to me and I will steal some time from my daily routine to enjoy this hobby of mine.

Along with the reading habit, I have also explored my writing abilities through this blog. Expressing views and opinions and experiences has become so easy and far reachable that indeed one gets heard. But at the same time, the truth is that all want to say, speak and talk but none wants to hear, listen and converse. Blogging is a way out of this and I am glad to be a blogger.