Kerala - Kochi   

The world on his canvas

KOCHI: Anjan Satheesh is a true example of how differently able a person he is, said the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court, S. R. Bannurmath.

Bowled over by the creativity of 20-year old Anjan, who has severe cerebral palsy, Mr. Bannurmath along with other judges made a special reference to honour the artist as he inaugurated an exhibition of his paintings at the High Court corridors.

The paintings were being exhibited as part of the silver jubilee celebrations of the High Court staff’s cultural forum, Samanvayam.

As Mr. Bannurmath came in, Anjan quickly sketched the figure of the Chief Justice in about 15 minutes.

It is not just the young man who needs to be congratulated, but also his parents and teachers, who had helped and supported the young genius to realise his talents, said Mr. Bannurmath.

The exhibition had about a hundred paintings that Anjan had drawn over the years.

The Chief Justice even bought a painting from one of his recent works for a sum of Rs. 17,001.

The works included water colours and acrylic paintings, digital art, pencil sketches and cartoon figures of famous personalities.

Some of Anjan’s childhood works were also on display showing a gradual maturation of an artist. It was not the first time that Anjan’s works were displayed, it was probably the first time that his painting was bought.

“We had never thought of selling his works”, said Latika Satheesh, Anjan’s mother and an employee of the High Court. It was an impromptu gesture of the judge to buy it, she added.

Earlier a student of Adarsh Special School, Anjan is now employed by Adarsh to teach computer to its special children.

The computer hardware is specially designed by Tata Consultancy Services for use by differently-abled children.

Since Anjan joined as the faculty for Computer Drawing five months ago, he has been giving specifications through drawings to the company regarding the different needs to help all children in his class to use the computers.

Anjan had a year’s training at Toonz Animation Academy, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram after his schooling at Adarsh and SSLC from Government Palace High School, Thripunithura.

“While schooling, painting and his medical needs had kept everybody busy at home, it was after he completed his training at Toonz that the need for employment crossed our mind,” said Anjan’s father, N. Satheesh of Federal Bank. He was also keen to take up a job but the stark inadequacy of the system in accommodating someone like Anjan had its problems initially. He worked for six months with Dr. Jerome Kalister in Chengannur, helping him in creating software of human anatomy in a project called Human Anatomy Animation that would be used to teach medical students without the help of a dead body.

But, it was his old alma mater Adarsh that provided him a gateway to realise his talents by imparting what he has learnt to other children, differently-abled as he was.

As the principal of the school, Nitya Gopalakrishnan, puts it, “He is a genius who should have been elsewhere, somewhere on a higher plane. We are happy to have him. ”

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