A brush with destiny
Sarita Dwivedi was four years old when an 11000-volt power line fell on her, while she was playing on the roof. She was admitted into hospital in a critical condition. Though Sarita survived the mishap, she lost both her arms and a leg. This might be enough to daunt even the bravest soul, but not Sarita.
A Class XII student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Old Cantt., Allahabad, the shelves in the home of this young girl are stacked with awards, of which The Mind of Steel Award of the Godfrey Phillips Bravery National Awards 2010 is the latest. The light in her own dark tunnel is provided by the canvas and the paintbrush. “But being blessed with people that see my creativity on the canvas and not the way I hold the brush, there is nothing dark in my memories,” she says adding, “I am determined to emerge a winner — my way of achieving this is through the brush.”
A gifted artist, Sarita paints with her foot and mouth. She has won appreciations from dignitaries like the former President A P J Abdul Kalam and President Pratibha Patil, and maintains that her best accomplishment lies in balancing studies and art. The most remarkable fact is that most of the awards she has won are under the ‘general’ and not ‘differently-abled’ category!
But this isn’t an easy year study-wise. Sarita is in Class XII, and while studies do keep the pressure mounting, painting isn’t something that she can let go of that easily. “Right now, the year being my twelveth, there are tough studies at school. But, I can’t give up painting. Even when I’m speaking to you, my foot keeps drawing,” she laughs.
A Humanities student, Sarita wants to specialise in the Fine Arts and take up a government job. Already equipped in the water, poster and acrylic colour art and heritage art forms of Madhubani and Warli, she wants to take her painting more seriously (if that’s possible!). “I may not become a Picasso or a Husain, but my art should never appear as if it’s drawn by a handicapped person,” she says firmly.
But painting and studies doesn’t mean that Sarita misses out on the normal things that girls of her age like doing. She loves to shop, freak out, upload pictures on Facebook and Orkut and as she says, “I do clay modelling, I write poetry, do henna art and I stitch.” However, there is a poignant note in the midst of this bright cheerfulness, “If there is anything that I love and cannot do, it is dancing,” she adds wistfully.
But the regret doesn’t last long. Within minutes, Sarita is back to her bubbly self. Her motto, after all is to make the most of what we have. And that is the motto she lives by.
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