The boy who drew .....

With Abhay's old writing desk back in place, nothing can stop him from doing what he loves doing which is to draw and drawing what he loves drawing, which off late has been houses. Each of his drawing is no different from the other except that one probably has two houses and the other has three houses!:-)Not very long ago he was into drawing trains, trains and more trains! In fact, his 'Happy Diwali' card too had trains, only those trains had diyas(lamps) on the windows! Now all his artistic tendencies seem to have transitioned from transport to dwellings and Im not sure what to expect next! Of course, as any parent, Im more than happy that he has found a way to engage himself in a seemingly constructive activity, but a whole stack of drawing sheets with nothing but houses or trains is a little too much for even the most appreciative parent on the earth!

Anyway, as soon as I saw this book on the book shelf of a bookstore, I knew I had to pick it up. "The boy who drew cats" by Anushka Ravishankar and Christine Kastl is a Japanese folk tale about a boy who drew only cats, nothing but cats! Instead of helping his parents with farming, he drew cats on the fields! As his father felt that he was not cut out for farming, he took him to a temple to study under a priest. But at the temple too, all he did was draw cats; When asked to write a word, he drew cats, when asked to do a sum, he drew cats; He drew cats even on the rice paper screens of the temple! So his head priest decided that priesthood was not his cup of tea and lets him go with a piece of advice! So he leaves the temple and sets out to find his true calling. As you read on, the story reveals that ultimately his numerous drawings of cats help him establish himself as a great artist who is always known as the boy who draws cats! Although this story was a little above Abhay's level of understanding, he understood one thing- this main continued to draw cats even when he grew up! So when I asked if he'll continue to draw houses even after he grows up, he said "No I'll draw other things" and when asked what those things were , he cooly replied "Trains"!!!