But, she knows P for painting!

Manjishtha does not know A for apple, B for ball or C for cat. But she knows how to paint. This Allahabad girl is just two years and two months, but her tiny hands have made over a hundred paintings. And she has even sold off a number of them.

Manjishtha does not know A for apple, B for ball or C for cat. But she knows how to paint.

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This Allahabad girl is just two years and two months, but her tiny hands have made over a hundred paintings. And she has even sold off a number of them.

Sixty-two of her paintings have adorned the walls of UP State Lalit Kala Akademi starting from Wednesday. But this is not Manjishtha's first exhibition. She has put up a number of exhibitions before. And in her first exhibition, she had sold off eight of her paintings. Priyanka, Manjishtha's mother tells, "We had put up the first exhibition of her paintings when she was just twenty three months old. And she started painting when she was barely one and a half years."

Talk to Manjishtha about painting, colours, drawing and paper and see her face light up. She will tell you instantly that she wants to 'paint with water colours.'

Manjishtha mother Priyanka is a painter too. Priyanka tells, "When I used to paint I used to give her paper and colours and she painted whatever came to her mind. I noticed that she had a creative imagination and encouraged her to paint. I never taught her formally, even though I was teaching other children. She learnt by observing me." She tells, "We always gave a very conducive environment to Manjishtha to grow and develop. We never curbed her creativity."

Apart from putting up exhibitions Manjishtha has also participated in an international artist camp held at Ujjain. And this goes without saying that she was the youngest artist at the camp. Her mother tells, "At this camp about five hundred artists of international standard had participated. They came from all around the world. Manjishtha was one of the participants at this camp. All the artists loved her work."

An eminent painter from Belgium Philippe Falisse saw her paintings at the art camp and gave her a written compliment wrote for her "I saw your paintings.

They are very nice. Go on, see colours everywhere and show your colours to the world."

Further, Manjishtha has been invited to Dhanbad in September as a guest artist. She will paint along with other artists at the camp.

She is all set to create a world record too. The youngest professional painter registered in the Guinness Book of World Record is three years old. However Manjishtha was just twenty-three months old when she started selling her paintings.

Her father tells, "We have approached the Guinness Book of World Record Centre for registering Manjishtha as the youngest professional painter."