Date:19/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/12/19/stories/2006121917040400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

`I want to touch the Vidhana Soudha and draw it'

Staff Reporter

Five visually challenged children exhibit their skills in drawing

Bangalore: Mountains are green. The sky is blue. The sun is yellow. There are even two birds to complete the perfect picture.

"Did you ever imagine that the blind could draw, madam?" Mahadevi, a visually challenged student from CSI Victoria School in Mysore, asked a pressperson, pointing to her drawing.

Displaying their ability to draw on a Monday afternoon for the press, five visually challenged children sat and drew mountains, trees, flags and flowers of different colours all by themselves.

Training

Trained by an artist, Mustafa Khan, in what he calls "Pop Up Symbolism", these 10th standard students, Kavitha, Nagamani, Rachna, Sushma and Mahadevi, can now draw by touching objects to understand their shape and then using their fingers to recreate them from their imagination. "The children had to be taught to hold a pencil. They were used to punching holes for Braille," says Mr. Khan.

Preparing them mentally and continuously motivating them is important in the initial stages.

The children are first taught to be familiar with shapes such as triangles, rectangles and circles.

Then they are taught to identify crayon colours by associating certain shapes with the colours.

"It has been four years since I started working with these children," says Mr. Khan. Now, he teaches 16 students and is willing to teach more visually challenged children.

"I can even provide literature on how to go about the process," he says.

"We did not think that we could draw big shapes when we started off," says Nagamani. "Now I want to touch the Vidhana Soudha and draw it," Mahadevi says.