One stroke at a time

A 10-year-old prodigy lends his masterful strokes to Children’s Cancer Foundation memorabilia.

Tashina Nur knew from the start her son was gifted. She always kept an easel with paper and paints in Yakub’s room and when the two-year-old would walk by, he would make some quick strokes with the brush and move on.

Tashina would save these paintings not because they were her son’s adorable creations but, being a kindergarten teacher herself, she could see originality in his work — a unique quality for that age. She began using Yakub’s work to design his custom-made birthday cards, goodie bags and cake. But she knew she could put her son’s work to even better use. She had an idea.

But one day, the file with all of Yakub’s drawings went missing from a table’s drawer. A lot of hue and cry was raised. As the story goes, the file carrying the precious drawings had fallen from the drawer, and the housemaid, while clearing up, mistook the papers as rubbish. She put them in the bin outside from where the garbage truck would take it. But it turned out that the maid actually gave the file to another woman to sell them to the kabari walla.

Amazingly that woman, instead of selling the paintings, kept them for her children. Luckily, she was traced after Yakub’s parents made frantic efforts to recover the lost drawings, and the file was bought back. Tashina then stored Yakub’s drawings in a cupboard that, believe it or not, burnt down in a house fire. “There was something surreal about it,” recalls Haider Ali Nur, Yakub’s father. It was as if the paintings had a destiny and some force was decidedly intervening in it. Perhaps it was looking for the right time for Yakub’s paintings to serve a purpose.

Irrespective of what fate had planned, Tashina was adamant about using Yakub’s artwork to promote some cause. She took one of Yakub’s drawings of animals, all in motion, with a message “Save the Animals”, asked her daughter’s friend to photoshop it and had it printed on bookmarks. These were put up for sale at a school mela, but the response was very disappointing. No one cared about Yakub’s idea, it seemed.

But Tashina was not one to be discouraged. She took key chains and bookmarks with the tagline “Cancer is Curable” to another mela organised by the Children’s Cancer Hospital. These were sold for a mere Rs50 to Rs100, with no intention of earning profits but to spread the message about cancer prevention and cure. “One is most likely to throw away a brochure, but key chains and bookmarks stay with you forever, so it’s a constant message that will simply not die,” says Tashina. Sadly, the response to these was also muted.

It was only at another Children’s Cancer Foundation (CCF) mela that the souvenirs sold like hot cakes. Now, products with Yakub’s drawings are an essential part of any stall set up by the CCF anywhere around the world. And thanks to the young boy, awareness about the CCF and children’s cancer has increased: the family also receives donations in unmarked white envelopes from friends and relatives, which are then passed on to the foundation. Dr Shamvil at CCF also says that money keeps pouring in from anonymous donors around the world.

For a 10-year-old, Yakub’s drawings are quite awe-inspiring. A lot of his work includes a mix of pencil colours, water paints, oil pastels and chalk, and with each passing day he is exploring other mediums. Be it a peacock, a dragon or a parrot, he draws all animals in motion. Even his signature is in the form of a whale turning back with its mouth wide open.

“I have always loved animals and once I pick an animal or a bird [to draw], I imagine myself as that creature,” says Yakub. “I’ll act like one, eat like one and walk like one. It’s more like a trance and then I can quickly draw it onto paper in a couple of minutes.” He explains that he draws the complete picture in one stroke, making sure he does not pick up the pencil from the starting to the end point. Quite a challenging feat!

Yakub accompanies his mother to all melas where his work is sold but prefers to keep a low profile. This is not to say that he doesn’t enjoy his work. “I always wanted to do this because I wanted to earn sawaab,” he says. “I feel happy and satisfied that some child at the Children Cancer Hospital is benefitting from my drawings.”


His mother, who is more vocal and is a great force behind the project, often shares his story with customers who are curious to know about the boy behind the project. But initially it was hard for her to accept that her son was treading an unconventional path. “A lot of times I questioned why my boy would not ask for standard boyish things instead of things like a lion’s tooth, fossils, feathers or an old crocodile skin suitcase,” she says.

But when one day an uncle took her aside, he made her realise that her child was indeed gifted and the whole family needed to support him in his passion. He quoted Iqbal’s verse,

Khuda agar dil-e-fitrat- shanas day tujh ko

Sakootay lala-o-gul se kalam paida kar

(If Lord grants you a heart that can appreciate nature;

Create a connect (even) with the silence of the flower)

From then on, the family began appreciating Yakub’s talent and his keen eye for detail. “Once he drew the spots under the fern plant in our garden. None of us had thought about it, so we went out into the garden, under the fern plant and found the spores,” says Tashina.

Citing her own experience, the proud mother advises all families to never question the natural gift that their child has. “Now, having worked with Yakub’s drawings, I believe that if one’s child is gifted, his talent can be put to good use and for the benefit of others if one has the will to do it,” she says.

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, October 28th, 2012.

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