It has been a year now. When we look back at the experience of painting in two village schools of Punjab, Lot of things come into the mind.
The year 2017 have been full of events in our life. all good ones and one of the reason we were not able to update the blogs regularly last year despite traveling and painting at many places. so here is the experience from firozpur.
The invitation to come and paint with the government school kids in firozpur came from a friend who was contacted by an NGO who were looking for a different kind of experience for the schools they were working with.
After initial chats we agreed to go over the weekend and paint in two schools in firozpur district. Schools where the NGO was working with support from various companies.
The first school we went to paint had no idea what we do and how we do it so the first problem were the walls. We have been given plastered walls and it was impossible to paint on it without a coat of White paints.
We had explained our requirements in our phone conversations about white walls but then Who listens carefully to wandering artists. Any ways, Jey took it upon himself and started painting the walls in white color. It was hard job to do but then the teacher in the school asked some villagers to step in and help.
One of the person who came forward to help was a signboard painter and he patiently helped us.
We talked to the kids and asked which animals they have not seen yet and which one they would like to make on the walls. We finalized on a Crocodile and a Peacock and few other animals depending on time.
Meenakshi made the basic sketch for the animals and kids took upon themselves to fill the color in the crocodile and peacock.
It was amazing to see how these tiny kids have such steady hands. By afternoon we were able to finish the crocodile and two peacocks. The colorful crocodile had numbers to count on his back and one of the peacock was eating snake. The idea of peacock eating snake and crocodile eating a fish were suggested by students during lunch as Jey asked them what these animals eat. They pointed out fish and snake and drew it with help from Meenakshi.
We finished by evening but it seemed that the NGO people were not very happy with the output. It was not the quality of the paintings they were unhappy with but they wanted more walls to be painted. It was difficult to explain to them that on a plastered wall the quality of any mural gets affected. Also the number of kids in the school were pretty low and they were really tiny kids not above the age of ten.
It gets difficult to expect huge artworks from tiny kids and there were no teachers to support them. The school had only ONE teacher. One of the members of NGO (Who actually had invited us and knew our work) intervened and said that the kind of work done was excellent and no one should expect a good job unless they make good preparation which also meant that for the next school they needed to have walls in a good condition and teachers/students to support us.
The Dinosaurs, Elephants, Players and Games
It rarely happens that we paint more than two walls in a day but this school in a village in firozpur had excellent teachers and students.
They were not only friendly to us in the first meeting but also willing to work hard and make great artworks and entertain us in the meanwhile.
We interacted with the kids and almost all the kids were really enthusiastic about painting. We talked about animals again in the school and they wanted dinosaurs and elephants in their schools.
This school had two buildings. A new and an old one with huge walls.We decided to use all the available walls. The office building got two Elephants and the old building got two big dinosaurs.
The walls in the playground got players made in a minimalist way.
All these sketches were done by Meenakshi and colored by the students. We made group of students so that they don’t fight with others. Still there are few students left who wanted to paint some more.
Jey found a sitting place and turned them into a canvas painting it white. After painting it white, We decided to make some games there so that if kids want to play a game they can play it there.
So imagine this…Two dinosaurs, Two elephants, Players and Games in a single day. Around Five walls with different murals in one day.
The NGO people that day dropped us and came in the evening to pick us up. When they saw the number of murals and the quality they had nothing to say. The main person was so happy that he decided to give us a special treat. He then took us to the Firozpur border area with Pakistan to see the daily event of removing the flags which is kind of a show off by both the armies.
We get to see the resting place of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev which is nearby and stories of partition from local people.
We came back to the hotel remembering the lovely time we had in the school and the enthusiastic kids who not only painted but showed us Bhangra and Gidda dance as well. The girl students were terrific in their talents. They painted with steady hands, spoke with confidence, danced with aplomb and asked us tough questions such as Why you guys became artist. Do you earn money if not how you survive?
We answer the way we could and then then invited us on their own with such words like..When you come next time …STAY WITH US…with OUR FAMILIES.
We promised them to come back.
