Threads in the Fabric

The image you see dates back to 1970 about a year after I was appointed as a medical sculptor in a major hospital in Bombay. In 1969 I was blessed with finding a niche for my skills immediately after graduating from university as sculptor.

At uni I was a dirt poor student who slept in the lobby of the college and somehow managed meals with my friends. Thus not having money to spend, my college timings were literally 24 hours. My mentor the famous Sanko Chowdry, a sculptor of repute, worked tirelessly deep into the night and depended on students like me to assist him. We are talking here about the lost wax process for bronze casting. A very tough task if you ask me.

Another daily task was recovering used clay and that which was taken out of molds, clean it of plaster fragments and then knead the clay into large one kilo balls. I just worked with a loin cloth and did not care about getting messed up. Neither did I care to visit a barber. Somehow the whole experience of not owning anything made me feel like a free bird and learning the ropes to develop the skills of a sculptor gave me immense pleasure.

I carried all this to my first job as a medical sculptor. The excitement of using my skills to create hyper realistic prosthetic restorations for the disfigured persons, was out of this world. I have been able to retain that excitement until this day.