Author: shish_admin

Beauty is the language of nature. And beauty is found in art. So here’s a story about a boy, a fanatic for art.

George, a 9th grader was crazy for art. Well, being crazy for art was natural as he belonged to the home town of the great artist ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ the creator of the famous painting Mona Lisa. Paris also has one of the most expensive painting galleries of the world – Le Musée du Louvre.

George was from an extremely rich family. He had been to the museum-like a hundred times. He was fascinated by the beauty of the museum and so he was attracted to art. He always made his paintings with his most favourite brush which was like his magic wand. One fine evening, he decided to paint. And what a shock he got!! He had lost his magic wand – his most favourite paintbrush. He was disheartened. So, he explained the whole situation to his mother, who understood her son’s sorrow and gave him money to buy a new paintbrush of his choice.

So George set off on his cycle to the market. It was a hazy evening. While stopping on a crossroad he spotted a young man selling paintbrushes towards the right side of the road. So he changed his course and turned right. He stopped by the footpath and beckoned to the young man. The young man came to him.

George said, “I need a paintbrush and these look of good quality, aren’t they?

The man said, “Yes, these paintbrushes are indeed of the best quality. They also have a special quality, if you paint anything you will enter the painting and see it in actuality. Yes, I am sure you also, like everyone, won’t believe me. But it’s true.”

George thought, “Just a foolish man roaming on the streets” and then he said, “Yes, I can’t believe you. Anyway, how much is the brush for?”

The young man replied, “The brush is for $2.”

George gave the man money and then he set off back home thinking, “I think the young man was told the same story by someone and he is just spreading rumours about this brush.”

After reaching home, he commenced his painting. In an hour or so, he completed the painting. He was admiring it and just then – as the young man had told him – he entered the painting and saw it in reality. It truly looked amazing. What he painted was a pure blue river with fir trees along its sides and majestic mountains with snow-covered peaks. And the sun behind the clouds, making them look as if the clouds were orange-ish pink. It was truly mind-blowing. George stayed in the painting for about 5 minutes and then he came out. It was a stupendous adventure. He told his family about it and they too were astonished to hear it.

A few days later an idea popped into George’s mind. He took $30 from his mother and went to the same crossroad where he had met the young man. He saw him and then he gave him these $30 and apologised for not believing him. George asked him, “What is your name?”

He said, “I am William Smith.”

George thanked William and then set off back home. After arriving home, he slept as it was night. In the night, he had a vivid dream that he had become a world-famous painter. He saw that he had been named as ‘Leonardo da Vinci’. The next day he awoke feeling overjoyed with the dream. He told his family about this vivid dream. His family members told him that indeed his dream will come true.

Three and a half years later, after graduating from school, he got admission to the National School Fine Arts De Lyon where he studied art with hard work. After much time his dream came true. He became an art expert widely known as Leonardo da Vinci Junior.

Today, my grandfather and I met for the first time after the lockdown. I was so excited to meet him and by the way, I forgot to tell you that my grandfather lives in Assam. We both are nature lovers. Sadly people have started to destroy nature.

When our flight reached Assam, we took a taxi to my grandfather’s house. My grandfather is a retired forest conservationist. There was a small but lush green forest. In the evening, my parents had to go somewhere, so they left me with my grandfather. After a few minutes, we heard a call of distress coming from the forest, so we headed into the depths of the forest. We heard the call of distress again and followed it, and finally, we found it was a sambar caught in a trap set by hunters. It was wounded because of the trap. The sambar tried to stand, but it could not do so, as it was badly wounded. I gently moved my hand around its body to pacify him, and soon it got to know that we were his friends and not the ones who would cause harm. We decided to take it home and take care of it, but then we realized we were lost in the forest.

I asked my grandfather if he had his phone. He checked his pockets. He had lost the phone. It might have fallen out when we were running. It was still daytime, and we had the rescued sambar with us, so we quickly started working. My grandfather told me to look after the sambar and find a cave by the time he went to gather some food and wood.

I soon found a cave. It was very dirty, so I took a branch of a tree and used it as a broom to clean the floor. After cleaning the floor, I took the sambar inside the cave. Then I went out and got some grass for the sambar. After a while, my grandfather also came back. He had brought some fruits and water, but before drinking the water we had to boil it, so we had to light a fire. My grandfather came up with a technique named The Hand Drill, which he had learned during his forest survival training camp. It would take some time, but it was the only option we had, and luckily we were able to light the fire and boil the water. We drank some water and also gave it to the sambar, and then we slept.

On the second day my grandfather went to set some traps to catch fish, collect some firewood and water. I loved watching survival channels. So I know something about the wild forest. There were many bamboo trees around our cave. I took a stone as a sharp knife and started to cut some bamboo trees to make a raft. It took me the whole day. When my grandfather returned, I was shocked to see that he had a handful of fish and fruits that night. We ate nicely.

My grandfather said that we needed to set a huge fire as a sign that we were alive and help the police find us. I showed him the raft I had made and he was happy and hugged me. We got back to chopping down wood for the fire. It was evening by then. We started the fire at night. We saw some torches at a distance. We were so excited! And then we could hear the footsteps closer. Then we both shouted with excitement, so the police could hear us, and it did work. We saw the police and finally we were rescued.

This was the best adventure with my grandfather.