Apeejay School in BG Block was part of a multi-city sit-and-draw competition meant to commemorate the birth anniversary of Anand Paul, a member of the family that founded the schools. Students, of course, were as excited to draw as they were to be meeting one another after two years.
The topic was ‘Sakaratmak parivartan: how has my life changed’ and was held under the aegis of Apeejay Anand Children’s Library (that provides reading and other facilities to the needy) to celebrate the 30th edition of Anand Art Workshop in memory of Paul. The event had students joining offline and online from all branches of the school in Kolkata as well as in Haldia and Bhubaneswar. In fact, there were under-privileged children taking part on behalf of NGOs too.
Masks and online classes
Soumitra Sarkar took help from his favourite cartoon characters
Doraemon and Suneo to describe
his world. He painted the characters to be distributing masks and sanitisers. “This is the most common
scene we have seen in the last two years so that’s what I painted,” said the 13-year-old student who frequents of Apeejay Anand Children’s Library.
Aarini Nath drew students taking online classes from home, while dreaming of returning to school. “This has been our life for the last two years. We had to accept the situation but missed the classrooms,” said the Class VI student, who was delighted to be sitting beside her friend after a long time. “This topic was both interesting and difficult but since it had been announced earlier, I had practised a little at home”.
Around 250 children between classes IV and VII took part. While participants from five NGOs sat inside the hall, school students sat in other areas of the campus.
Ashish Nath, a 10-year-old resident of the Baisakhi area, was one of the children brought in by the NGOs. “I am enjoying this competition and am happy to be visiting this school. I liked taking part in an event like in the pre-Covid days. I haven’t practised specifically for today but the artwork I did in the last two years is helping me,” said the boy who drew the earth wearing a mask while viruses hovered around the planet.
Back to school
“I was so excited to return to school that I bought a new colouring set,” such lines were overheard frequently among the students.
Athav Yaduvanshi was trying to identify his teachers but having a tough time as they were all wearing masks. “I’ve only seen my teachers online and so my friends and I are trying to guess who’s who,” smiled the Class IV student as he successfully identified his English teacher Rupali Gupta.
Students had been asked not to share food and belongings and to keep their masks on all the time, but there were no complaints. “Even more than the competition I am waiting to meet my friends. All this while we only spoke over video calls and phones,” said Prakriti Ghosh of Class V.
The principal Anindita Banerjee said they had been part of this art festival for the last 30 years. “On this day, our focus is to include the NGO children and make them feel like a part of our family,” she said. “Earlier this event would draw 1,200 of our schools, invited schools as well under-privileged children. Of course, we have had to scale it down due to the pandemic but still students are happy even in this new format.”
What will you choose to paint if you are asked to draw on Covid times? Write to The Telegraph Salt Lake, 6 Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta 700001 or email to saltlake@abp.in