Now that I’m home for summer vacation, these colors of mine are being used a lot around the house, because my cousins—and especially my brother—use them too.
Coloring is a wonderful activity that offers a sense of relaxation and provides an escape from depression; it keeps loneliness at bay and creates the feeling of being deeply engaged in a task, striving to make the outcome look beautiful.
My brother was painting a rock, and seeing this, my little cousin Jannat got very excited; she found a rock of her own outside and asked me to create something on it for her.
The reference image Jannat showed me—which she wanted recreated on that small rock—was extremely complex and really required a large canvas; so, I persuaded the little girl to let me paint just a small ladybug instead, thinking that would make her happy.
While chatting with Jannat and painting that ladybug, I even gave it a name- "Pocket Ladybug."I described it as a "Pocket Ladybug" so that Jannat would find the idea fascinating—that she could slip this tiny ladybug into her pocket, take it anywhere, and bring it along on her travels.
Surprisingly, Jannat was completely unfamiliar with the ladybug; she had never seen one in person during her childhood. I remember, that when we were young, our rickshaw would often break down on the way to school; we would get out and search for ladybugs in the fields, letting them crawl onto our hands without a trace of fear. Children these days, on the other hand, never seem to look up from their mobile phones.
I can say with considerable certainty that children living in villages are still quite familiar with living things like ladybug, fireflies and moths; however, children who have moved to cities—and who are glued to their mobile phones all day—have only ever seen such things on screens or in cartoons, without having any real-life experiences of them to cherish as memories later on.
In the midst of the conversation, Jannat’s ladybug was ready; she was delighted with it and went around the house, excitedly showing everyone, "Look, Manahil made this ladybug for me."
