There is a famous
saying, “Never judge a book by its cover!” and Mr. Bhaskar, a wood carver we
met today, is a living example of this quote. Once we started
interacting with him regarding his interests in carving, we were amazed by the
love for his work and the emotions he instills in his art works. He is famous
for his wood carving at the Ram Temple at Ram Nagar and few well-known places
and temples of Coimbatore city.
The carving genius:
Mr. Bhaskar, who is
forty-six years old now, hails from a family settled in Chittarkottai village
near Rameshwaram. His family has been involved in wood carving for centuries
now. His father, at the age of 80, is still working on wooden sculptures in the
Rameshwaram temple. His family moved to Coimbatore around thirty years back,
when Mr. Bhaskar was just ten years old. He learnt the art from his father
without any standard educational procedures. He has been working on wood
carvings for almost thirty years now, and some of his great works still stand
majestically in bungalows and commercial areas.
His specialty lies in
carving different flowers. Once the concept to be carved is given to him, he
takes not more an hour to finish the carving in an area of one square feet. His
designs are a combination of spirituality and nature, such as flowers, birds,
animals and so on. Although the same carving only takes a couple of minutes in
the modern CNC machine, the beauty and value of a handcrafted design is way
higher.
The not-so perfect
artist:
Inspite of being an
excellent artist, Mr. Bhaskar came under the influence of alcohol and got to
drinking. Being an alcoholic, he works on anything that comes to his mind,
without paying much attention to the actual requirements. Few people have taken
advantage of his weakness and got their work done for pennies, though their
artistic value was many fold. His story made us see the reality of the lives of
similar artists, who are being exploited for monetary benefits.
Let us celebrate art
and give the value and glory it deserves, rather than exploiting artisans and
defaming them!
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