Vipin Sharma credited as playing...
Nandkishore Awasthi
- Ram Shankar Nikumbh: Mr. Awasthi, did your wife read anything about the Solomon Islands on the internet?
- Nandkishore Awasthi: I don't know.
- Ram Shankar Nikumbh: On Solomon Islands, when the tribes need to clear the jungle to make way for cultivation, they don't cut the trees. They simply gather around them, and hurl abuses at them, they curse them. Slowly but surely, after some days, the tree begins to wither. It dies on it's own.
- Ram Shankar Nikumbh: Just imagine. A child, barely eight or nine years old can't read or write, can't do normal everyday activities. Can't do a lot of things that other children his age do effortlessly. What must he be going through? His self-confidence must be completely shattered. He's covering up his inadequacies by being openly disobedient creating a ruckus everywhere. Why admit to the world that I can't? Just say that I don't want to. That's what they learn from grown-ups. Now, his spirit too has been crushed out there. I'm sorry to say but... he's stopped painting completely.
- [Ishaan's mother and Yohaan feeling sadder]
- Ram Shankar Nikumbh: It's really sad.
- Maya Awasthi: But why Ishaan?
- Ram Shankar Nikumbh: There's no answer to that. It's a neurological disorder, could happen to anyone. Could be genetic. Put very crudely, there's a wiring problem in the brain, that's all.
- Nandkishore Awasthi: [Putting away the toy box's cover] So, you're saying my son is not normal, mentally retarded?
- Ram Shankar Nikumbh: [angry] What a strange man you are.
- [Ram picks up Ishaan's paintings and shows it to Ishaan's father]
- Ram Shankar Nikumbh: Look at this. There's a sharp mind here spinning a thousand colourful dreams. Far beyond what we're capable of.
- Nandkishore Awasthi: [adamantly] What's to gain from it?
- Ram Shankar Nikumbh: Why are you looking for gain?
- Nandkishore Awasthi: What else? What will he grow up to do? How's he going to compete in this world? Tell me, am I to look after him all my life?
- Ram Shankar Nikumbh: [frustrated but in a calm tone] I know. There's a merciless and competitive world out there. And in this crazy world, everybody wants to grow toppers and rankers. Everybody wants a genius for a kid. Doctors, engineers, MBA. Nothing less is tolerated. 95.5%, 95.6%, 95.7%. Anything less is blasphemy, isn't it? For God's sake, think. Every child has his own capabilities, his own desires, his own dreams. But no. Each finger has to be pulled until it gets long. Pull away until it finally breaks.
