Drawing Spirits

There was this "Drawing Competition" organized for the entire neighborhood children marking the end of Karnataka Rajyotsava celebrations. The communication to us was somehow missed but as Ganesh and I are mostly out in the neighborhood during mornings and we saw the event happening from the terrace. We came home immediately got ready and went there, but we were among the last ones to reach. Most of the children had left by then, but a few children who were there happily shared their crayons and waited for Ganesh to finish his random lines with white crayons on white paper! I tried to change the color of the crayon but he changed it back to white! One of the kids helped him making flower and such, and this activity kept him engaged for five minutes. This according to me was not even qualifying for a "competition" but it was happily submitted as an entry and it was pasted in the venue among the other entries of 2-5 years category.

There was the felicitation ceremony with some cultural programs in the evening, in which all the children had to participate. The first category being 2-5 years, then 6-10 years and 11-15 years. All the children were being called by names. Ganesh also promptly ran to the stage, seeing the proceedings. He went to collect the gift before his name was called and held himself back when the child whose turn it was, collected hers, backing himself off when his name was called. I had to ask him to go and collect. The radiant happiness in his face while collecting and shaking hands with the gentlemen on stage would have glown one dark room! As the lady who was announcing correctly said, "Judging the paintings was just a formality. It was the participation which was important. Please give a loud round of applause to all the children. We are so lucky to have them."