I was never good at art! As a young child, I would have to score much higher than others in subjects like languages and arithmetic to cover the gains others made over me in art. Fortunately, my torture was ended when my school offered needlework as an option to art in class V, and then, eventually, classical Indian music in middle school! With music, I finally had the advantage over others. Now, there was no way for them to catch up with me!
Then, my father moved to another town for a new assignment. We joined a very nice school not far from home. Here, I had to once again struggle with art. I have never forgotten the single “very poor” given to me in my life! That was when we had to learn to draw a human face and paint it! That the painting was a disaster, is a given! I also found it difficult to draw symmetrical features on either side of the face. Either one eye would be lower than the other, or larger or shaped differently! The other problem was getting both ears to look identical and at the same level! I realised that if I didn’t do something I may have to stay in class VIII forever. Yet, no matter how hard I practised, the end result looked “very poor” even to my eye!
That year’s final art examination had two items in the course. Apart from a human face that I had completely failed to master, the option was a landscape. That seemed a way out! Clearly, I needed help. So I approached one of the girls in my class who was really good at art. She taught me some tricks that helped me make a fairly attractive evening sky. I left nothing to chance. The prospect of failing was not acceptable! That year, during the winter vacation, I bought art paper, cut them into greeting card sizes and painted the same evening sky on every card to wish my friends for Christmas and the new year. After having painted it over and over again, I was finally satisfied. When the exams came, I was ready with my landscape and emerged with a score card that my parents could be proud of.
The other abject failure that I recall from my school days, is sports. I learnt to play basketball and practised hard with my team as I had been made the Captain of one of the three House teams. Shotput and javelin throws were an entirely different matter. Our school had a very kind and loving sports teacher, Sister Renaldo. But try as she might, I just couldn’t get the hang of it, as they say! Once she tried to teach me by standing behind me, holding my hands from behind, and making me turn in the right manner to throw the javelin. To her dismay, the javelin landed 6-8 feet away from me! It was the same with short put. It always seemed to land near my feet!
