On a quiet Sunday evening, as I sat in my tiny hostel room, an odd feeling of homesickness was creeping in. I brushed away the tears that had slowly started forming near the corner of my eyes and tried to divert my mind from the unfamiliarity of my surroundings. I used to draw a lot of sketches in those days and had in fact decorated the walls of my room with numerous art works.

My computer was already running, playing the good old songs of the 90s. I opened Google Images to look for some inspiration. After clicking through scores of sites and jpegs, I came across an image that was painted in MS. I remember being stunned, amazed by the sheer talent of the artist. I wanted to be that artist. And that’s how began our affair, in the year of 2004.

Since then MSPaint has been my 4 am friend. It had seen me grow from an impatient student strangling the mouse, to a cautious artist, who carefully picked colors and chose brushes with correct width. I had drowned my heart-break in dark nights spent drawing ‘midnight blue sky’ and a ‘bright yellow moon’. Some very lonely weeks writing poetry after poetry in Times New Roman. On days when I felt fanciful, I used Verdana. 🙂

Even my poetry had found shape in MSPaint.

Jubilantly dancing girls to flying dragons.

Most days, it loved throwing challenges at me. The options weren’t enough and the brush size just won’t make Chibi look right. And yet we stuck together. I don’t know why I never moved to any other software. Maybe I was too emotionally involved.

The announcement by Microsoft has brought back that odd feeling of homesickness again. It did feel like losing an old friend. A friend who knew the meaning behind all my paintings, and saw me through every ups and down.

I am one of those who is extremely jubilant by today’s news that MSPaint lives on even after 32 years. Yes, I AM too emotionally involved. 🙂

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