Two missing pages
Two days later I was again drawing. My cousin came up to me and asked, “Do you mind if I take two pages from your notebook and show them to the Ashram’s best artist?”I said, “Why do you have to invite unnecessary criticism? I am happy with what I am doing. Now you will bring unnecessary criticism, and then I will feel sad. You will feel sad, too, that you are going to an artist who will not appreciate these little birds.”
I am older than that artist by nine or ten years. I knew her grandfather. He was a doctor and he liked me very, very much. Once more I said to my cousin, “I sincerely do not want to be blessed by her criticism even though, according to you, she is now the greatest artist in the Ashram.”
But my cousin insisted, “No, no, I really want to show her.”
Finally I gave my permission. “All right, if you really want to show her, then you have to be prepared to accept her criticism.”
Then she looked at me and gave me a very broad smile. I said, “What?”
She said, “I already took two pages from your book the other day. I brought them to her and told her all about your drawings. As soon as she saw the birds, you can’t imagine how happy, how delighted and how excited she was! She showed these two pages to her students, and she told them how fast you draw the birds. She was so thrilled. The birds gave her tremendous joy. She wants to keep those two pages.”
