Lessons, At School And In Life

A day in the life of a quiet 11-year-old state school student, who loves nothing more than drawing life in colour on paper.

- Tanya Ranjan

DEEPANSHU, a class 6 student of the state government-run Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya on Delhi’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, starts his day at 6.30 am. “He doesn’t like waking up for school,” says his mother Suloch ana, who is on a month-long leave from another school where she works as a guard. Deepanshu’s class of 30 boys, all around 11 years of age, is full of energy in the morning, with most kids running around and cracking jokes. But this child from a one-room tenement on Asaf Ali Road, which he shares with his mother and his six-year-old sister, Bhoomika, quietly takes his place on a bench and starts colouring on a piece of paper.

Impervious to the din around him, Deepanshu’s eyes stay foc­ used on the paper and his brush moves constantly. Even the teacher fails to get his attention as he carries on with his painting. Deepanshu says he loves drawing animals the most.