Children get busy with their colours at the painting competition organised by Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam in Patna on Friday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, Aug. 12: Madhu, a 10-year-old girl, painted a unique Tricolour today. The colours of the flag were perfect. The shape was regular. What made it distinct were the prints of the small palms of the child who soaked her hands in saffron and green to give the flag her “personal touch”.

Madhu, suffering from autism, was helped by her teacher T. Chatterjee, who came from Institute of Mentally Handicapped to help the little ones portray their imaginations and thoughts on canvas. Around 50 differently abled children took part in this painting competition organised on the premises of Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam.

Speaking about Madhu’s creation, Chatterjee said: “I only drew the outlines and gave her the right colours, the rest was done by the kid. I am happy Madhu followed my instructions clearly and painted the flag really well.”

Rashmi Ranjan, another autistic child, painted colourful balloons on canvas, again helped by Chatterjee. Her uninhibited brushstrokes blurred Chatterjee’s outline at several points, giving the balloons a new shape, but the colours and effort put into the painting grabbed the attention of many visitors at the competition.

The organisers kept no particular theme for the competition. Children were free to paint anything they wanted in one-and-a-half hours.

The differently abled children came from two different institutions — Samarpan, a non-government organisation, and Institute of Mentally Handicapped.

H.P. Choudhary, senior quality control engineer, Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam, said: “This event has been organised as a part of our corporate social responsibility. This kind of healthy competition will help these special children gain confidence, which they gene- rally lack because of their isolation from society. We want to instil a sense of belongingness in them.”

Other paintings drawn at the event included fruits, scenery, animals and others. Children applied colour to blank outlines drawn by the teachers on paper.

An extempore competition was also organised on the occasion where the special children earned loud applause for their participation.

Each student was asked to pick a chit from a bowl and had to answer the question written in the paper. Many children sang their favourite songs like Hum honge kamyaab and Papa kehte hain bada naam karega. The organisers were surprised to see the children sing the full song at one go without any mistakes.

Alok Kumar, the deputy general manager of Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam, said: “These children are extremely energetic and enthusiastic. They are in no way inferior to any other children. All they need is some motivation from their caretakers.”