Discernment aside, a teenager is a teenager, so he even attempted to steal money from his father once. “I stole four paisa from my father’s pouch,” he laughs. “I waited for my father to discover it for few days but he didn’t, so I started stealing one coin after another. One day I dared to buy an ice-cream in front of my school and POW! came a blow from behind. It was my father.”
“Those days all fathers used to be strict and everyone was scared of their father,” recollects Chitrakar. “My father affrighted me but I was a pampered son at home and had a lot of fun,” he adds.
“Once I ate at the school canteen without my father’s permission. That too with the coupon that was provided for under privileged children,” he remembers. “I remember the slaps I got that day from my father because it was insulting for him.” Even though his father made him stay hungry throughout his school hours which was 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., by not giving him any money to buy food, he doesn’t feel very bad about it now.
He thinks fine art was his calling, since early days. Somewhere deep down, he always wanted to be an artist even if he was a science student in the intermediate level. “No one has ever crossed my record of getting absolutely zero out of 20 in Physics practical and 12 out of 80 in theory,” he says rather gleefully, as if that’s the biggest achievement he has ever had. “But I am happy to have got that result. If I had gotten a passing grade, I probably would have become a doctor but not me. Most importantly I wound not get to do what I’m born for.”
He started his fine arts rather early on. “But I got the chance to explore it professionally when I went to Bombay after getting disastrous grades in my intermediate level, during the last days of his teen life,” he says. “Before that, I used to paint landscapes and show it to my father. I used to be apprehensive of his reactions but he always corrected me properly.”
At present he teaches at Saraswoti and Lalitkala Campus and Kathmandu University. Chitrakar is happy that he has been able to share a lot of knowledge with his students. But at times regret seems to wash him over in waves. “If I die right now, I will have less than 50 paintings with me. That’s not enough. I have to work more and create more art,” he states rather ruefully for not being able to make enough time for himself and his art. He has seen hundreds of pupils grow to be fine artists though, quite an achievement.
“Right now I have been working on my new collection which is dedicated for the country,” he shows his personal favorite. It consists of the torn pieces of Nepali flags that indicates the present state of our country,” he concludes.
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