Colours of compassion

Today, Nakshatra K.R., a fifth standard girl, will celebrate her 11th birthday like never before. All these years, her mother Sunija and father Rajendran offered her gifts and all the love in the world on her birthdays. But this year, her mom, who is a mural artist, wanted  her daughter to do something special. That’s what moved Nakshatra to make her palette colourful for a wonderful cause.

Nakshatra spent a few weeks completing more than 150 drawings, which are on display at the Durbar Hall art gallery. While most 10-year-olds spend their free time playing, Nakshatra creates pretty paintings that deserve to be in a gallery!

Another thing that makes her artworks unique is the fact that all of them were featured in an exhibition, ‘Behind the Strokes’ for sale to raise funds that she could use to help people affected by the floods.  

“Like every kid, my daughter also wanted a big gift for her upcoming birthday. One day, she eagerly asked me what I was going to buy for her on her birthday.

As we all know, our people have been facing so many hardships over the past two years. So, on this birthday, I asked her, why don’t we help someone in need? She was sad at first thinking that I was coming up with a plan to destroy her birthday. But when I showed her the news and videos of what is happening around her, she silently brought to me her coin bank and asked me if she could help them with her savings. But when we counted the money it was not enough. Seeing her sadness, I came up with a new plan. We together decided to conduct an exhibition-and-sale of her paintings. We bought some canvas and paint with her savings and started off her little mission.”

Wednesday, the last day of the exhibition, happened to be her birthday too. So Nakshatra wanted her parents to count the money and decide how to spend the amount for the flood-affected. They also have thoughts about spending the money to help a child who is from the flood-affected area. But their primary aim is to find affected families and hand over it to them. Nakshatra, a student at Global Public School, is so thrilled that her deeds are turning into a helping hand for the affected. “I am so happy that I can help them. I was hoping for a gift on my birthday, but it turns out to be the best birthday I have ever had as I can help others with my mite,” says Nakshatra.

“It is so overwhelming to hear positive feedbacks from the onlookers and buyers at the exhibition. One of the main reasons why I wanted my child to do this is not just the fundraising; I wanted my child to have compassion and realise the importance of co-existence.  Her works are being sold at the exhibition because people are willing to help the affected ones and, not just her. So, she could not have done this without the help of many generous persons.  They were also kind enough to spend some money for her works hoping to help people back in Wayanad and Malappuram with that money. It is just not her. Everybody who patted her on her shoulders and told her nice words about her deeds and everybody who bought at least one painting are also part of it. I wanted to teach my child about that co-existence. And, I hope it will also instil confidence in her by proving that she could do great things,” explains Sunija. More than 100 paintings have already been sold and each one costs `200. Nakshatra, who lives in Kadavanthra with her parents, started drawing from the time when she was strong enough to hold a pencil.

She wants to continue painting in the future, but her biggest dream is to become a veterinarian because she loves pets and to take care of them.