So there is this man I saw one day, sitting along the road, selling his dreams, his paintings. There was a story behind each of his works and what brought him to the streets. The guy loved travelling, as a boy whenever he watched TV, he would watch all those travel shows which would take him on a virtual tour around the world. His urge to travel places grew extreme. He also had a talent not many possess, to draw what he had seen or thought just as he had been there himself, and that’s how his journey started. As he grew older, he saved all his money to paint ‘cause he knew no matter how much he saved he wouldn’t be able to save enough for travelling, but almost enough to fulfill his dream of painting. So this dreamer started to paint every place he had been through books, radio & TV, and the places he visits now in his sleep. Pheww…so much of travelling, how the hell could he ever get a good sleep with all this travelling? He sat in his chair, his hat pulled down and dreamt, travelled actually…all the places he had been were revisited and new ones were explored and then made to come alive on his canvas. And by the time he was a Man, the boy had visited so many places, he had run out of space to keep those memories and the desire to actually be at a place and paint it had grown stronger somewhere at the back of his head.
So one day as he stands in front of an ordinary light pole and draws the Eiffel Tower, an old lady comes up to him and sees the wonderful Italian Piano, green and golden in color and offers to buy it. The traveller is a bit hesitant about selling off his memory only when it strikes him if he could sell all the work of his life so far, he would have another life to actually visit places to draw. At once he stretches a smile and what pleasure, he says, but to give a gentle lady like hers a piece of his memory. He makes a big profit on it, after all the lady was generous about someone’s efforts of painting his dream alive. Now that Mr. sells his paintings at a reasonably high cost, so much after all for all the beautiful hard work. Sure I can’t buy one, though its just being sold on the street, but guess what I can draw one just like it. Soon he will make enough money to start travelling for real and see his other dream come alive. For all I hope is that he is able to make plenty of such memories and never have the need to sell them again.
This post is written as a part of Thursday Tales.
Image Courtesy : Painter Montmarte.