SATYAJIT RAY:
BEYOND PAINT, BRUSH & SKETCH PEN
–

On the day one of his admission to school, a little boy was asked to
describe something uncommon he had come across, while on the way to the
school. The boy replied promptly, “It was the tramline,” to justify his answer,
he added, “All other transport followed any track they had found clear before
them but a tram followed a definite track laid before it.” Apparently, the
answer reflected on the presence of mind of the boy, but there was something
more in his answer, which drew the attention of the teacher. It was the power
of observation of the boy even at that age. Since childhood, to the last day
of his life, what Satyajit was never devoid of, was a set of eyes for details.
Nothing escaped his inquisitive eyes. Marie Seaton once related an incident
(Ancestral Tapestry/Portrait of A Director: Page 60): Little Manik was playing
with a green toy-frog, which leapt as it was set with spring. Suddenly, he
discovered a live frog hopping about in the garden surprising him that it could
leap even without any spring. Amazed, the toddler asked his ailing father,
Sukumar, sitting in a wheelchair, how the frog could hop about without any
spring attached to it. These incidents, if taken casually, don’t appear to bear
any special hint at the future of a child but, if analyzed to explore the trait of
a child’s mind, indeed appear to have a special significance – rapt attention of
the boy while looking at any object before his eyes.