Canvas

I visited Waiangani a small fishing hamlet near Vengurla, South Maharashtra in February 2014. Kirat Trust had organized Turtle Festival. The theme was Hatching of Olive Ridley Turtles eggs. 

On the first day the organizers had invited Artist Polaji who demonstrated "Acrylic on Canvas" painting. He had a unique style of painting. His demonstrations started with canvas that were not plain white. All his canvas were smeared with the residual paints, the left over in the pellet during the earlier paintings.

So as shown in the photograph he selected one which was earlier smeared with various shades of yellow and green . As he progressed, the brush strokes brought out this amazing painting in front of us. He used the background of yellow and drew a mama turtle laying eggs on the sea shore. 

None of us spectators imagined this scene when he started the painting. What Artist Polaji did was, he understood the canvas, visualized what he could create on it, connected the dots and sketched out this painting out of an absolute abstract background!

For me the painting  was true depiction of the life of Suhas Tolaskar a Turtle Conservator .

Suhas went to Mumbai in search of career. Unsatisfied in Mumbai he returned home to Waiangani. Here he found the real purpose for his life. Suhas like the artist accepted the canvas of his life. He accepted that Waiangani an obscure fishing hamlet ( and not Mumbai ) was his destiny . He recognized that he was passionate about turtle conservation . What remained was then just connecting the dots and adding colors to the canvas of his life. Suhas accepted this challenge and made it a story of his life. He is devoted to the cause of turtle conservation for over a decade now .
The Turtle Festival as they call it was organized by Kirat Trust for the third year in succession. This year it was visited by about 110 people. The 3 day event not only created awareness for conservation but was a boost to the local economy for the other wise sleepy obscure and otherwise unobtrusive village Waiangany.

Suhas accepted his canvas (like Artist Polaji ) . He understood that his canvas was smeared with limitations of remoteness. He foresaw the greater purpose in his life. Instead of cribbing about how obscure his village was he focused on the greater picture fighting all odds . Connected these dots added colors in the form of conservation efforts and drew a master piece of his life. I am sure his efforts would leave mark on the sands of time.

So the morale of the story , Accept one's canvas. It may not be empty and may have colors from previous paintings. Accept them , visualize what one can paint on this background, connect the dots and draw your master piece! The least you can do in this life is abstain from complicating your existing canvas and try to add meaningful colors to it. You can start by saying ......
"Today is the first day of the rest of my life!"