Lessons lived

It is advised not to go and ask him what he knows. If you want to find out how much Minon knows, you will do better to ask this boy, all of 11, what else is left for him to learn. To the pertinent query whether education is a necessity, the tiny chap says a vehement no. He has never been to school and neither do his parents wish to have their two children moulded by the format of a set  syllabus. Yet, he has amassed an amazing amount of knowledge, before which, anyone would doff their hats. Be it literature, arts, science or anything under the sun, he would showcase his extra ordinary prowess by explaining to you the knowledge acquired by himself. The boy, hailing from Haripad in Alappuzha, is in the city as his artist parents are taking part in the ongoing children’s book exhibition hosted by the State Institute of Children’s Literature. Minon remains a kid only until one comes to the stunning paintings done by him. In his ‘career’ spanning around a decade, the kid has over 3500 paintings to his credit and has conducted 34 exhibitions in various parts of the State. His first painting exhibition was conducted at the tender age of eight at the Lalit Kala Academy at Thrissur. Nature, animals and men are brought with prowess on the canvas. His crusade with arts began when he was crawling on his knees. With the available writing materials, he began scrawling on the floor. Later, he experimented with chalk piece, pencil, paint, crayon, water colour and acrylic. His other love is books. “I love to long peruse on complex topics.” Minon explains. And the bibliophile ventures into nothing less than the complete works of authors. His parents say that the only thing that Minon was ‘taught’ in his life was the alphabets in Malayalam. Later, when Mini, his mother, ventured to teach her tiny tot the art of reading, she received a jolt hearing the reply of the four-year old. She remembers him asking, “Are these books  not written with the same letters you taught me? Then, I can manage on my own.” From then on, Minon has decided his needs and wants. Explains Mini, “At least till the age of ten, children should enjoy their life. They maintain a curiosity on things they would love to know about. That curiosity is to be nurtured.” Minon too has no worries about not being sent to school. “If all are taught the same things, then the real talent would go unnoticed,” he thinks aloud.The little master also plays chess in his own way, where he would defeat anyone in the third move. But he is not ready to break the ‘trade secret’. The self-taught tech-savvy boy has a mastery over computer and admits that the only failure he continues to encounter with is in the online downloading of videos. “As long as he is not depending on a system, this learning would enable him to survive” says John Baby, his father who is an artist by profession. And what else does an aspiring globe trotter require? Minon has a younger sister, Mintu, who follows in his shoes and does not go to a formal school.