The renowned artist, Prabhakar kolte, chose the students from KP gaikwad high-school of Akkalkot. The rural school got famous for its approach towards education during lockdown. The school had installed speakers in the village for daily education!
The drawing teacher of the school, Mr Dantkale, has a 7 year old regular practise of introducing students to great personalities from different fields. Whenever possible, he’d find out the address of such personalities & share it with the students.
With this kind of exposure to the world, the students have been encouraged to to write postcards to the people who inspire them. It’s fun event for them when they receive answers to their letters, & they have received almost 3000 such replies till date!
Prabhakar Kolte was introduced to the students in a similar way about 4 years back & students have been keeping in touch with him over postcards. The students also had sent individual greeting cards expressing their wishes to Mr Kolte.
The correspondence continued and the veteran artist wrote a book of 30 poems in Marathi based on the school & students. And told Dantkale to send the illustrations done by the students. Those by Vaishnavi Vasure (std 6th), Smita Laute (Std 9th) & Rasika Kaulgi (std 9th) were selected & sent.
Last week, he visited the school & launched the book, spent time with the students & spoke about painting & its nuances. “It was inspiring. Not many big names take the time to visit rural school. On a personal level, Kolte was the equivalent to a national award.” Dantkale said.
