Painting of a Child in Tears

Every year in January, in a state capital city in India, there will be an all-India exhibition for about a month. The stalls are from all over the country—clothes of all kinds, kitchen utilities, dry fruits, circuses, children’s toys, government department stalls, artificial jewellery, TV sets, laptops, mobiles and other digital accessories, ice cream stalls, food stalls, books-old and new,  paintings and other utilities of life.

Sai Krishna(Sai) and Rama Krishna(Ramu) were classmates studying for their master’s degree at a reputed university in the city and staying in the attached hostel. They both got admission to a highly competitive course by their top ranks in the all-India entrance exam. They completed their first semester, and Sai was the topper in the class.

It was the first time Sai had stayed away from his parents. He did not mingle with his classmates and spent time studying textbooks. His classmates called him a bookworm.

After the first semester, they had holidays for about a fortnight. They planned to go home after a visit to the exhibition. Both Sai and Ramu went to the exhibition in the night at about 7 pm. They purchased tickets and entered the exhibition, and they started visiting the stalls from the left side.

In any exhibition, there will be more clothing stalls, particularly of sarees and girls’ and women’s wear and dress material. They skipped most of these stalls but stopped at men’s wear stalls. As they were students, they were not interested in many items. Each purchased a Lucknow chickankari work kurta, and Pajama stopped at the Mirchi bajji stall and ordered a plate of Mirchi for both. The Mirchi bajji was big in size, tasty and oily. They went on visiting stalls of old, used, and unused books sold at a reduced cost. They glanced at some of the books. There were several self-help books, autobiographies, health books, novels of different languages by various authors, cookery books, etc. They could not find text or reference books on their subject of study.

They continued visiting the different stalls and came across a stall of paintings. There was no entrance fee to the stall. They went inside the stall and found several paintings of small and big sizes framed and decorated on all four sides of the stall, leaving the entrance. There were oil paintings, watercolour paintings, acrylic paintings, pastel colours, ink, pencil and nails. Some were on the canvas, and some were on drawing sheets. Many were of new yet unknown and upcoming artists.

There was a young lady in charge of the paintings. She was about 25 years of age, about 5ft 2 inches in height, with a brownish complexion and wide, bright, beaming eyes. She wore a plain white cotton saree with red and green embroidered flowers, a red and green colour medium width border and a matching blouse. She looked more like an artist’s figure with her perfect body shape and attractive smile. Her bobbed hair fell over her shoulders, covering partly her ears. Her hanging pearl earrings danced as she moved. She had a simple gold chain falling over her neck and onto her raised chest over the pallu of her saree. She wore a red Kumkum dot on her forehead. Overall, she presented a lovely young lady. 

As Sai and Ramu entered the stall, no other persons were there. She invited them and asked them to glance at the paintings so they could decide on the purchase. Sai was amused to see her and could not shift his eyes from her for a while. Ramu asked Sai to look at the paintings. They went on looking at the paintings, and as they had no idea of art and painting, they requested her to explain each painting.

She then introduced herself as Sarojini and said she hails from the same city. Then, Sarojini started explaining in their local language. She explained the paintings, the artist of the painting, the importance of shades and the feelings they express.

Sai had an artistic mind, whereas Ramu was not interested. Sai listened to her attentively. Having found Sai immersed in listening to her, Ramu lost interest and left the stall to visit other stalls, asking Sai to call him after finishing.

Sarojini continued explaining until they came to a painting of a boy standing with tears in his eyes and cheeks and a school bag on his back. Sai was attracted to the painting and stared at it. The boy had a wheatish round face with bright eyes, a sharp nose, and small closed lips. His school dress consisted of a half-sleeved shirt of red colour square checks with two blue lines alongside the red square, a plain blue tie, a blue nicker with a black knitted cotton belt, and white socks and black shoes tied with white laces.

 As Sarojini explained the paintings, Sai was not listening to her; he looked at her, and his eyes showed a different expression. Sarojini could understand the expressions in his eyes. She smiled, looking into his eyes, and he reciprocated. They both understood each other’s feelings silently through their eyes.

Sai appreciated the painting of the school-going boy and the artist. Sarojini explained that it was from an upcoming artist and showed him other paintings the artist had drawn.

As Sai looked at the painting, he remembered his childhood school days. The painting depicts his initial school-going days and his mother consoling and dropping him off at school.

As Sai was not moving from the painting, Sarojini said, “The painting costs  Rupees Ten Thousand.”

At this point, Sai became normal and said, “That is high on my purse. I will come to meet you tomorrow.” Then he gave a warm shake hand to Sarojini.

Saying these words, Sai left the stall in search of Ramu.

After a little bit of searching and a mobile call, Sai could trace Ramu. Ramu enquired about the delay in coming, and Sai smiled and kept mum. Ramu has never seen such a smile on Sai’s face. It conveyed a different meaning, which he could not understand then. After visiting some more stalls, they returned to the hostel.

The following evening, when Sai was getting ready, Ramu asked where he was going. With hesitation and without revealing his purpose, Sai said, “I am going out, I will be coming shortly.”

Ramu understood the change in Sai’s behaviour and did not extend the talk further.

That night, at about 10 pm, Sai entered the painting stall. There was no one except Sarojini in the stall. He again went around the paintings. Sarojini was silently observing the changes on Sai’s face and his eyes. Sai was not concentrating on the paintings. He observed Sarojini sitting at the desk, standing and raising her hands to put the paintings in the correct position. His eyes silently followed her and showed an expression of desire for her, which only Sarojini could understand. After about half an hour, Sai came and stood before Sarojini, took a rose flower from his pocket, knelt on his legs, and offered the rose flower to Sarojini, saying, “I  love you with all my mind and heart. Please accept.”

Sarojini lifted his shoulders, hugged, patted him on the back, and kissed Sai’s eyelids and cheeks. Sai’s desire for Sarojini melted away with her kiss on the eyelids and cheeks. Sai was dumbfounded as he expected a different kiss.

Sarojini said in a firm and consoling tone, “My dear Sai, I love and like you. I wish I had married you. But my mind thinks differently. You are not yet mature enough to understand this society. I could visualise your feelings in that weeping child painting. You are as innocent as that boy, not knowing society and life. You are yet to see more life and understand society. By accepting your rose flower, I can trap you, but my dear Sai, I am overwhelmed by your innocence, and I sincerely and with all love for you tell you that I do not fit you. I wish you a happy and bright future.”

As she spoke these words, they heard a siren announcing the exhibition’s closing time that day and every visitor was to leave.

As Sarojini was speaking, a middle-aged businessman entered the stall. He had diamonds studded gold rings on all five fingers of his right hand and a heavy gold chain around his neck. Sarojini’s face glittered on seeing him as if she was waiting for him and was delighted to see him. She welcomed him with her hand on his shoulder and moved beside him, touching his body closely.  

Sai was confused and could not follow anything from her words and behaviour toward the businessman.

Then, Sarojini said, “Bye, Sai, do not try to meet me again.”

Saying these words, she showed him the door.

Sai could only understand her words: “I do not fit you.” Tears rolled down from his eyes.

Sarojini closed the door with the businessman inside the stall.

PRABHAKAR MUSIPATLA