Interestingly, his English name was “bestowed upon” him by the other kids while trying to write their names in my black notebook as he did not have any English name like the rest yet.
First thing worth noting is that he is rather small-built for his age, thus he had so much self-consciousness that he was asking me if he is too short/ small. (I almost half-jokingly replied to him to avoid taking wintermelon tea, i,e dong gua cha in Mandarin. "No, I used to be like you, you will grow, I replied instead. )
Beneath this petite physique, Chandraman is also one shy character in the house. I have noticed him sitting quietly by the window, using the windows grill as an anchor to do his friendship band. And there was one incident where he drew a lovely picture for the volunteer. Instead of giving straightaway to the volunteer, he held it in his hands, paced up and down the hallway and kept hestitating to give it as a gift. A few times, I would always stop him to ask him what was it he was holding in his hands, and if that was for any of us, and he would always look down, too embarrassed to admit. It was quite a joy to catch him “red-handed” in his shyness.
He has an amazing talent for arts and handicraft. For example, I bought this plain-looking boring black notebook for the kids to write introductions about themselves. On seeing the plain-looking boring black notebook, Chandraman drew a rose for me without hesitation, and offered to help me paste it on my notebook as a decoration. So, the plain-looking boring black notebook had transformed into a beautiful-looking notebook under his creative hands.
The rose has also captured the eyes of my friend, JY, who requested that Chandraman draw her a rose during my next trip...(Price tag for the art?! :p)
In his free time, needless to say, he likes to draw and do handicraft with the minimal resources he has. Usually the bed acts as a table for him to create his masterpieces.
The windows grill and the wooden platform, serves as his very own way of holding anchor to his friendship band.
His determination and passion for Arts shines through without doubt. For example, he learnt how to make a friendship band with his name in less than 1 hour. What had touched me was that he kept practising on his skills and worked towards the goal of perfection to make THE perfect friendship band. It was really inspiring to see his never-give-up attitude and great determination!
Also, worthy of mentioning here, he won several prizes in the school's art competition. Below were some of his masterpieces he drew during his art classes with the limited resources they had:
Some of Chandraman's cute photos. He is truly very photogenic!
During our trip, we brought along wet tissues (seems like quite a necessity in Tourists’ To-Bring checklist) which the kids saw and were fascinated with the smell and texture. We gave one piece of wet tissue to each of them. They were thrilled and repeatedly smell and use it to clean their face. Then, they would fold it nicely and keep it safely in their pockets. Repeated on several occassions, I saw them taking it out to smell and use as a handkerchief. On our last day, they even used the wet tissue to draw pictures and messages for us!
Below was what Chandraman drew on HIS Wet Tissue. Yes, Wet Tissue! The elephant was drawn with great details and it was probably the nicest elephant I had seen on drawing. What made it inspiring was that this delicate elephant came from the works of a 12 years old Kid. And on a wet tissue? Which is probably the last few materials we will choose to draw on.
Lastly, in the beautifully decorated notebook, this was what Chandraman wrote:
"I like to play all games but I like to draw pictures. I like also like English and Nepali, etc. I like to eat pizza. I like to go school everyday. I want to be a painter."
You are the painter, Chandraman! With your talent and good attitude at such a young age, I am sure you will go far!
