Hit Art

“One day, Mark and his two sons came back home. Tim and Jon were very young. Mark told them about how Jesus Christ had made him a better person. Jon told his father, “I want that too!” Wanting to wait until he fully understood what it meant to let Christ into your heart, his father told him that he would eventually. Relentless and antsy, Jon screamed, “No! I want it now!” And that’s when he started his music. He found out. He found out how Christ helped people in being a better person. He helps them by making them do something out of their passion.”

Everyday, he sits in his room- calm and patient, romancing the canvas in his hands. He sits there, in his gallery which his father built for him. The entire gallery is filled with his paintings and yet he strives to paint more and more. He never wanted to be known or celebrated, he always wanted to paint. The only way he could ever reflect what the eyes of his mind saw was to paint. And he has, a boy of 17, Hitarth Purohit, not matching the ranks of M.F. Hussain or Ghalib yet, but an extraordinary painter.

Born in Jaipur, Hitarth has always been passionate about just one thing- painting. As a kid, while his friends used to go out and play to their heart’s content, he used to sit in a corner and paint. His father who is a painter himself gifted his son with colors instead of toys. He knew what his son was capable of doing. Hitarth told me once, how his father made a sketch of his mother that still hangs on a wall of his house. As a kid, he used to stare at that sketch for hours and tried to copy it with close perfection. His father saw how talented he was and decided to popularize his paintings. He supported his son and asked him to go a little further with the gift that he was born with.

In class 5th , he approached his teacher and showed her his painting. Impressed, she decided to host an exhibition of Hitarth’s paintings. That’s when everything changed. Hitarth decided to work on his talent even more. He participated in a lot of events and won all of them. With time, he hosted more exhibitions. In Jaipur, he has exhibited four times in Jawahar Kala Kendra and once at Jaigarh Fort. In fact, in a recent exhibition, held in Jawahar Kala Kendra, he sold his paintings to assemble money for the victims of calamities in Uttarakhand. Also, his fourth exhibition was inaugurated by Princess Diya Kumari. He has presented self-made portraits to Sachin Tendulkar, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ranbir Kapoor, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli.

Ask him how he ends up making such beautiful portraits, and he replies with a wry smile, “I really don’t know. My hands make me do it.” Hitarth tells me how lucky he has been to get a chance to popularize his paintings and that India has talent hidden in every person. Unlike others, his talent hasn’t gone unnoticed and that he wishes to not just paint but do something extraordinary out of his passion. Well yes, you wouldn’t have heard about him until now but maybe it’s time to notice how India is full of unbelievable talented people like him.
How often do we try to give people a chance to do something out of their passion? More often than not, we bury our desires to pursue a course that society must have enforced upon us. How often do we get parental support to make something out of our talent? Hitarth Purohit, has set an example before me and all of us, of an Indian who dares to believe in his dreams, whose parents have firm faith in his abilities and who knows how to make the most out of one’s passion.

Sudisha Misra

Man-United fan. Singer. Writer. Reader. Hollywood movie buff. Metalhead.

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