What Happens When You Ask 8-10 Year Old Kids to Draw Their Libraries?
Chaos.
Total, utter chaos.
Popular wisdom tells us that we are easier off herding a bunch of wild cats than devising plans that hinge on the cooperation of young children. So when yours truly commandeered a small group of miniature patrons at Panjim’s Bookworm library on a languorous Saturday morning for this project, she did it with a healthy dose of trepidation. She was righteously justified later when, despite the assistance of a supernaturally efficient and clearly beloved instructor, the kids refused to draw anything that even slightly resembled a conventional library. Buildings, seating, librarians, even books proved optional in the reading spaces these children envisioned. Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans, goes the song. Riotous, imaginative genius is what happens when you try and explain those plans to tiny creatures who ignore you for the most part and have their way with crayons, I learned. Awash with the colours of a fever dream and the self-enclosed logic of a Marquez novel, here are the kids’ drawings:
