Innocence and Ignorance

Art - this was one of the many periods in school I loathed attending. The teacher, every year, would sketch something on the blackboard and would expect a copy of it in our notebooks. One such sketch was that of a car. I tried my level best to make a reprint, but in vain. I still feel it looked like a house on wheels. Part of art class was colouring/painting practice. My skills with the paintbrush were as deficient as those with wax crayons and I would usually end up with bruised knuckles from sound caning. Every teacher of art has cursed me for my congenital incapacity to make a sketch or colour one. On these lines, I am reminded of one of my escapades with crayons.

I was in the first standard and the art teacher had given us an outline and expected us to colour it as homework. The sincere student that I was, I finished it promptly the same evening. My inflated ego, thanks to repeated curses from the teacher, had made me take extra care and time in colouring the sketch. Fully satisfied with the effort, I went to school, a jubilant boy. The first hour in the afternoon belonged to the art teacher and she came in. For the first time, I was smiling in the art class, expecting everyone to extol the effort. When I handed over the homework, the teacher laughed, gave me a 'C' grade and returned it. I was aghast. Back home that very evening, I was uttering mouthfuls in "praise" of the art teacher, when the flow was stopped by my mother. I showed her the homework and she laughed too and asked me to be thankful for the 'C' that I had earned.

The problem apparently was that the sketch of the elephant given to us was coloured in bright orange by me. It took me a few days to realize that I was wrong!!!

And now, I realize that I too was innocent and ignorant, at one point of time. The ignorance, to an extent, with literacy, seems to have vanished. But I fear it has taken away a huge chunk of innocence with it too! I am still in search of the reason...