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The Patachitra

"Her hands have magic", said everyone who saw her wield a brush. She had learnt the art of Patachitra as a kid. It was now paying off as she managed to make some money from it to fund her higher education. Her dad had left for his heavenly abode when she was appearing for her boards. Her mom was able to make only enough money to be able to send her younger siblings, a boy and a girl to school. She started doing odd painting work locally to make money for her college fees.
Soon, she managed to find a lady who gave her an order to paint on a sarees. That day she widened her horizon and started taking independent works. Then came that "online" order which broke her back. A lady gave an order to paint a pic of Srinath ji on a silk saree. "Please make my Srinathji blue instead of black." The picture shared was beautiful. And she was confident that she would be able to make it. Moreover, the amount she was offered was good so she accepted. She borrowed money to buy Tussar Silk cloth and lovingly translated the pic to the saree pallu and happily shared the pic with her benefactor.

"Umm, can you please add some bootis all over the saree." She did as she was told. "Oh some more bootis please." She added some more. "Ugh, I would have loved a different pattern of bootis but I guess I can't do anything about it. Can you please paint the patch on the head black so that it looks like hair." "But, it was like this in the picture and there's jewellery painted there." "Then you should have painted it black before." "Okay, I will correct it." She painted the hair patch black and re-painted the jewellery. "Oh my god, this looks so horrific and not exactly like what I asked you to paint. I am sorry, I cannot accept this." "What? But this is what you wanted. This is what you asked me to do." "Absolutely not, this doesn't look at all like the picture I shared. I cannot accept this at all." "Wait... Listen..." Blocked!

Now, the next set of books would have to wait. Maybe she will skip her final year in college. The loan needs to be repaid first.


© Nishtha Khurana, 2019. All rights reserved. The text as well as the pictures are both subject to copyright and are the property of the author. Please do not copy or reproduce without permission.

 


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