Draw Something!

So I  have this new hobby, border lining to obsession these days. It’s called Draw Something.  It’s a drawing game application on my Android where we explain a word through our drawing to the other players who are mostly friends from our contact list. It’s amazing that I recently exchanged 100 odd drawings with my best friend and there are two more friends who are just about to touch 100 with me in a day or two.

You know why it is amazing? Because, I always had complex about my drawing skills. I always secretly wanted to draw but was  embarrassed of what I draw. As a kid , I used to get A grades in all subjects but Drawing showed me the world of C-D grade. I would proudly draw stuff, love what I draw only to be ridiculed by my teacher, saying you cannot even draw a straight line. As a kid I was imaginative, so once I let my imagination go wild. The task was to draw  Ladyfinger, the vegetable. It is long and green with minor lines. I thought of making my special lady finger so I colored it in my favorite color, Purple!! I was so excited to draw my purple Ladyfinger that I had even decided the slot to paste this picture on my cupboard at home! When my teacher saw my drawing,she first laughed and asked , what it was. I said, this is my Ladyfinger vegetable from the Magic kitchen garden (too much Enid Blyton ..I guess), she showed it to the class and said, what do you guys think of this drawing and the other kids said, Ladyfinger..in chorus!

Now, it was my teacher’s turn to get embarrassed. She spoke with me in the irritated tone and asked me to make another Ladyfinger using green color. I did.

When I look back at this incident, I have two learning. One, Childhood is the purest expression of creativity. Let your child draw a round mountain, an orange river and a green sun with black sun-rays.. Do not give him defined space to fill the color that you think are correct. If he wants his world to be purple so be it. If his car has 6 wheels, so be it, if his cartoon has three face and two tails so be it. We condition our kids to think in straight line and later we complain that “the originality of thoughts is lost”. 

Secondly, it's the adult who have high expectations from the kids, between kids there is no competition but collaboration and joy. Competition, insults, pulling legs and showing one is better than other are the thoughts or emotions, that adults inject into the child's mind. Kids are happy to just be, doing their stuff alone or in collaboration. It's the adult who compare and decide and compel the competition in a child's mind. My humble request, let your kids be, and if possible- learn from them, chances are- they know more!

Anyway, it was fun to draw, i was embarrassed but once you let the fear of being judged go, it's ok! I thought my drawing was hideous, but what the heck, If I love to draw, I must draw. Point, is when I started playing draw something, I realized no one I know is a MF Hussein either. So what’s the big deal!. 

Have you ever thought, there are so many things you want to do, to try, to eat, to wear, which you do not do because you are ashamed of it. So what if you don’t have a flat tummy, wear a bikini anyway. So what, if you two left feets, dance anyway.

So what if my grammar is not borrowed from Oxford dictionary, write anyway..

Ending note- Big thanks to my best friends and new friends who indulged me in my draw something madness. So if you are reading this, draw something and send me fast!

Drawing a Cloud,

M