Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

A colourful day out for children

-PHOTO: P.V. SIVAKUMAR

Good time: Underprivileged children at the ‘Balakalakar 2008’ organised in Hyderabad on Sunday.

HYDERABAD: A happy family-ma, pa with two kids in tow-pose outside their little house as a stream gushing nearby against looming mountains formed a perfect backdrop. Cartoon characters took form, graffiti passed off for art and even a yellow-coloured Charminar surfaced in Lalita Kala Thoranam in the city on Sunday.

Art is a form of expressing ideas and feelings in visual form and that is what the kids precisely did.

For the 3,000-odd not-so-privileged children participating in ‘Balakalaakaar-2008’

An artist in every child’, a painting event organised by a youth organisation AIESEC in partnership with construction conglomerate Maytas, creativity oozed as they went wild with colours.

Some sketched their drawings with intense concentration, unmindful of the continuous chit-chatting of their peers from various NGOs and government schools in the city.

There were others who just sat admiring the skills of co-participants blowing out trumpet whistles ecstatically.

Some lost no time in boasting how ‘colourful’ and ‘original’ their drawings were.

“My Mickey Mouse looks so real,” exclaimed 14-year old Shiva of Centenary High School, Rasoolpura to his buddy Tirupathi of the same school.

Tirupathi wouldn’t take it. “Look how beautiful my Charminar is,” he provoked Shiva holding out his chart paper.

Around 50 drawings would be selected by artists from Kalakriti Art Gallery, who would then mentor the talented children in a workshop to be held in January, said Mohammed Salahuddin of AIESEC.

However, for many it was the just thrill of participating, and not competing in the event that made it worth cherishing.

As Sony, a girl from Dr. Reddy’s Foundation puts it, “today it was like a picnic as I enjoyed a lot with my friends. I wish it were like this everyday, we just had to draw and were given free pencils and biryani”, she chirped.

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