THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Meet Swathi Jaikumar K, an award-winning artist from the city, whose childhood is a striking parallel to that of Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi in the Hindi movie- Tare Zameen Par. Swathi recently won the first prize, bearing a prize money of Rs 1 lakh, for his 30-second animated video for ‘Think Clean’ contest by Suchitwa Mission. Numerous awards have come the way of this art teacher of Sainik School in Kazhakootam. But his school life was not easy, as the limits of formal education did not suit talents typical to a dyslexic kid.
Maths was his most dreaded subject and caricature of teachers in his notebook ensured that he was a constant fixture outside the classroom, irrespective of the numerous schools he studied in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam. His parents had tough time finding a school for him. Till standard 1 Swathi was residing in Ernakulam with his mother J Sugandhavalli, who retired as Reader of Cochin University. He later came to Thiruvananthapuram with his father Ezhumangalam Karunakaran who was a poet and folklorist.
The time he spent in the capital city inspired Swathi in his creative journey. “The St.Joseph School behind Palayam church gave me the freedom I craved for. Later I got an opportunity to show my skills before cartoonist Abu, who appreciated a caricature of him. The city has given me a lot of creative inspiration later in my life,” says Swathi.
But he had to shift back to Ernakulam and was enrolled in St Gregorios school in Edapally. “My studies did not improve there and I was often punished for drawing caricatures of teachers. But there was one teacher called Anil Raj who liked my caricature of him and encouraged me to join drawing competitions,” says Swathi.
He emerged winner in various drawing competitions and two of them he cherishes the most.
One was a competition held by the traffic police in connection with the traffic awareness week and the other a SAARC painting competition held in Thiruvananthapuram.
“In the former, I got the first prize in senior category and child prodigy Edmund Thomas Clint became first in the junior category. The news of latter came at a time I was playing outside and I soon became the pride of the school from being a villain,” says Swathi.