A Brush with Greatness
a journey beyond sight
Nature has created this beautiful world for us humans to live in, to acknowledge and to learn from the elegance of her creations. The way she has painted everything around us with a variety of innumerable colors is breathtaking: the blue sky with its orchestra of luminous clouds. The tall mountains formidable in their might. Striking awe in the hearts of men and beasts alike; the lush green valleys below with their orchards and gardens of colorful flowers and fruits. Even the bare deserts and icy glaciers have their own distinct beauty to share with the world. In essence, the relationship between colours and life is like flowers and their sweet fragrance, like sunshine and warmth; each is incomplete without the other. The fact that everything in this world has its own color; when put together, make this world a beautiful place. This teaches us the significance and sanctity of life on this earth. Likewise, there are many things that one learns from nature and its wise ways.
However, sometimes, nature prepares us to look beyond the boundaries of sight. She makes us walk an arduous path with its own eccentric set of difficulties and pain to test our courage and determination, and if we pass this test, she rewards us with the ultimate gift, gives us sight beyond sight, divulging its mysteries, its wisdom, laying it all bare for us to see. When I was eight years old, I lost both my hands and eyes in an accident and ever since then, a thick veil of darkness separates me from the colors of this world.
Nevertheless, as my father always says, nature has given us substitutes for almost everything. If we just stop whining about things and appreciate them as well as focus on the things we do have, we can live a content life. It was after two years of my accident I was sitting in my room after a tiresome day. An urge to draw took me unawares. I told myself, considering the predicament I was in, that I should abandon any hope of even having a single glimpse of the colorful world outside these walls of darkness. It was then that a realization dawned; of nature’s greatest and most beautiful gift, brought a deluge of color to my darkened life. So what if I can’t enjoy the colors of the world created by nature, I can create a world of my own and then color it myself with my hyperactive imagination.
Thus, my imagination became that brush with which I made my dark prison heaven on earth. Every day for half an hour, I would lose myself in a world where trees talked, birds sang in my own language, the most ferocious animals like lions and tigers were tame and were sentinels of my great and elegant castles, and above all, I found a way to feel the majestic beauty of the sun and the display of lights, as it shines at dawn and falls at dusk. Yes, a world where I walked under a clear blue sky, with its myriad of colors, an entire kaleidoscope of shades and hues, all personal to my life, my shades, my world. In this world, I didn’t have to walk in an endless shadow; I didn’t have to depend on others for walking a step or two. Even now, when I think of it, my heart fills with an inexpressible joy. I saw light at the end of the tunnel.
Two days later, I discovered other uses for this great brush. We had welcomed a new student, Ali Usman, who was a spoilt child of some rich minister. He treated every other student as though we were beneath him. He overheard me when I was talking to my friends about my imaginary world, and as it was lunchtime, he took the opportunity to ridicule me. He had a good laugh at my imaginary world and then brought everyone’s attention to my in-his-eyes-idiotic ideas. At first, I felt embarrassed and then laughed so heartily that some of my friends joined me. When Ali asked me whether I had some other revelation from my imagination? I told him that yes, and what’s more, it’s about him. Without waiting for his reply, I described the great revelation and when I finished. We all thanked Ali for such a wonderful time. I told him that in my mind’s eye, his face looked black as charcoal with a diamond-white nose, and there were two red cherries stuck in his nostrils. A ripple of laughter greeted my words, and I whispered to my friends, see what a wonderful thing imagination is?
