It was in 2003 that my dad had bought me my first PC. “How else do you expect me to pass my computer exams if I don’t have one at home to practice on?” I’d shouted at my parents 2 weeks before.
Looks like my tantrums worked because here it was. A brand new HP desktop waiting for me in my room.
Of course an investment of ₹38,000 on my parents behalf meant that I no longer had an alibi to flunk my computer exams. But hey, who cared? That was a worry for some other time.
Right now, I was basking in the glory of my brand new belonging. One that made me a part of that elite group of students who had their own computer.
You know what was the first app I opened after switching on my new computer?
Paint.
Yes, the thrill of playing Mario and Virtua Cop was there, but there was something empowering about holding the mouse and just letting yourself lose on that blank canvas with a plethora of tools at your disposal.
Where one could choose dozens of colours to colour one’s imagination and above all, where any misstep could easily be rectified with an undo button.
We grew up, and so did Paint. We were no longer drawing stick figures on it. Nor were we making mountains with uneven edges and a wide river flowing out from their peaks.
And even though we now had Photoshop to help us achieve grand artistic feats, Paint continued serving sophisticated purposes like helping us with basic edits and pasting screenshots.
But now, after 32 years of companionship, looks like it’s time to say goodbye.
For, according to a report by The Guardian, Microsoft plans to drop Paint from its next Windows 10 update.
Paint isn’t the only app that has been dropped by Microsoft from Window’s future updates. Looks like Outlook Express, Reader App and Reading List too are on their way out.
But it’s the elimination of Paint that’s hurting us the most owing to the sheer nostalgic reverence the app held for most of us. While a specific date for its removal hasn’t been fixed as yet, it’s bound to happen in the immediate future.
We might have many advanced software at our disposal today, but it was Paint and its tiny pencil that encouraged the Picasso within us.
We might have mastered Photoshop today but it’ll never match the thrill of balancing that cursor on Paint as we tried to draw our imagination out.
Goodbye Paint! You might leave, but the memories will remain.
