Today I want to tell one thing which made me very happy, so kindly bear with me.

There is a girl in my class, Sunita, maybe fourteen years. When she first came she would sit at the very back and would not lift the brush. Her lines were shaking, and she used to hide the paper under her leg so nobody would see. Some of the other girls laughed also. I did not scold anybody, only I told her, bamboo nib is not to be afraid of, it is only a small stick, if your hand trembles the line will tremble, so first make your mind quiet, then the line.

For many months she only did the border work. Straight lines, small dots, the easy things. Honestly I thought maybe she will leave the class like so many do when the school exams come.

Today she came early, before everyone, and put down a full sheet. Kohbar, the marriage chamber painting, complete. The lotus in the centre, the fish pair, the bamboo grove, the sun and moon in the corners. Her line is still not steady everywhere, I can see where the hand stopped and started again. But she has done the whole thing herself, and the proportion is correct. That much I can say with straight face.

I have been doing this work since I was small, learning from my mother, and still I will say this. When a child who was frightened of the brush completes a kohbar, that is a bigger thing than any sale I have made. Money comes and goes in this work, that is one separate sorrow. But the form going forward, into hands younger than mine, that is the real question for all of us.

I have kept her painting carefully in the cupboard, wrapped in cloth, because the paper is still new and the colours are setting. Her mother does not know yet. She wants to show when the whole family sits together on Sunday. I told her, do one thing, do not touch it again with the brush now, let it be as it is. First work should stay first work, with all its small mistakes, so that after ten years you can look back and see how far your hand has come.

Now she is asking me for a bigger sheet. So I am thinking, for the girls who finish their first kohbar, maybe we should do something small, a proper ceremony, sindoor and sweets, like we do when a student is given her first needle. If anybody here has done such a thing in their own teaching, I would like to hear how you did it.