Guest post by Adita Divecha, Karan’s mother

Note: Sorry I didn’t take any pictures; Devina already told me I should have!

Devina had arranged for Karan to join the Tuesday Workshops organized by START at the Jam Jar in Al Quoz. They have 1/1.5 hour sessions every Tuesday where children with special needs get to do some artwork.

Karan has been doing a lot of painting in school and we thought this might be something he would enjoy and hopefully get involved in.

I was a bit nervous initially; I’ve never taken him outside for painting or art before. But I drove to the Jam Jar yesterday and found it easily enough. It’s a big open space inside and there were a few people already there, sitting at the long table with thick sheets of paper in front of them.

We met with Nicola who was from START and I signed in. There were also people from Dubai One filming, although I’m not exactly sure for what. They were asking volunteers questions about their work at START I think.

The volunteers were getting the kids to dip their fingers in thick paint and copy the artwork in front of them. Karan isn’t very good at imitating yet, and he hates his fingers brushing against in any new substance, but we tried. He dipped one finger into a bowl of blue paint and had the most pained expression on his face as he did so. He then wiped his finger all over his t-shirt. Then we hurriedly put an apron on.

So I asked for a brush for him and then he was okay. He did four paintings; didn’t copy the design very well but had wonderful splotches of bright paints all over his sheets.

After an hour and a little more, he got a bit whiny so we decided to leave while he was still in a reasonably good mood.

I think he liked it … let’s see what he does next week.