my purple tree!!!

School is fun, especially when one doesn't need to open the books or write long answers. All that one needs to do is pull out some crayons and draw. I loved the class, arts is what they call it and i proudly used to say my favrouite subject :Arts.

When the first time i drew a few petals and a flower pot, which looked the messiest drawing one would ever see, my mom thought I was a born artist. The uneven petals, rose, pansy, poppy and a few dried crumpled leaves made my mom proud of me. I knew it in my bones that one day i would become a great artist, in fact i already was one; at least for my mom. In exchange of my giant flower and thin stem that held the flower in the pot i got the box of crayons and a drawing copy.

I knew that my talent needed to be proved to the world, so i set out colouring my house. Starting with my notebook; then books and then to the window sill. Nobody could stop this budding talent in me and soon all the walls in my house started reflecting those colourful lines, which had absolutely no meaning. My talent surely would have reached the neighbors had my dad not stopped me.

"What is this", he nearly screamed, showing me the beautiful script on the wall of my parents bedroom. Though none of the letters were straight or even, they surely looked good because it was my colourful name. I was wondering if i should have darkened the lines when my dad hit me so hard that i felt i was hammered.

"These walls are not to be dirtied, you understand? If again i find anything scribbled around the house. I will break all your bones ", he shouted and left me alone. i just stood, wondering why and how could such beautiful colours dirty the house.

Then on, no matter how much i longed to write my name on the wall, i used my colours only on the drawing sheet.

A few days later, my dad took me out to the park, in every tree, there were names carved, sometimes just letters. I knew that these names were carved by the kids who were beaten up at home for dirtying the walls. "Who wrote these?" I asked my dad. "Some idiots, and now hop along and go home", my dad was neither interested on the tree, or me!

While i came back, it was dusk. The sultry day made the trees even better and-purple. The purplish black leaves looked beautiful and the big red ball called sun was hiding in a distance. What a sight to draw the next morning.

In the drawing class i was happy because i was going to make a landscape. Two hills with the top like the tip of a sword, the sun setting, throwing orange coloured light all around and that beautiful tree with purple leaves standing out with the gleam of reddish light at the backdrop.

Proudly, i showed my drawing to the teacher but instead of complimenting my talent, she slapped me. "Where the hell do you see a purple leaf"? "Don't you know that the sky is blue, not red"?

I tried to explain the teacher that sky was red and the leaves were purple last evening but as the tears welled up in my eyes, i lost my voice too. My humiliation did not end here, the devil-teacher showed the paper to the whole class and made sure that each student in the class jeered at me. Later when my father came to pick me up after school, my teacher made a point to explain him that his daughter has absolutely no common sense.

My father just looked at me and gave a deep sigh. i know he wished for a smart daughter who had a lot of intelligence but he had a senseless girl if front of him. Somewhere, i had insulted him, his blood. Controlling my tears all along the way, i broke down as soon as i reached home. A born-artist died before she could show her talent to the world.

Many times after this incident, our devil-teacher asked us to be creative. "Arts is about creativity, imagination and ideas. Make something on your own", he would tell the whole class. I never made anything on my own again because i knew creativity meant stupidity and senselessness. Making something on my own would mean a slap and humiliation. Imagination would result to disgracing my father. I struck to the simple formula-sky is blue and leaves are green. For years i wondered if our devil-teacher had asked us to be creative only so that he would have that golden opportunity to beat us up.

During my drawing class, I learnt the simple rule be creative and:

- Sky is blue.

- Leaves are green.

- Sun is yellow or orange.

- Stars have five or six sides, neither less nor more and

- Any house should have a fence with a gate.

The only problem no was: blue and green crayons finished off fast.