Tangibles - Bombay, 2006

My memories of my childhood and my village take me back to the time when my mother made toys and baskets made out of clay and even taught me along with the villagers to make murals out of cowdung and clay. Some-where down my youth I was highly influenced by the traditional artisans like potter, idol maker, black smith, carpenter, masons. I found them doing their work with a great sense of satisfaction creating their respective objects. This act of creation made me very curious.

As I grew up I got involved in various religious and cultural activities of my village. Once while emerging a beautiful sculpture of mother goddess in the river as per the ritual I felt a deep sense of pain and loss, this I sat by the river and sculpted the replicas of the remains of the half immersed idol in its remembrance. This act gave me a sense of satisfaction and I felt as if I was a part in the act of creation. I continued sculpting not just replicas, which later bought me appreciation from my school principal and later inspired me to join Art school.

My deeply ingrained impressions of my village life as well as my respected guru, (Kaneria Sir) a well known contemporary Indian sculptor, photographer and teacher in the faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara for many years inspired me to choose the field of sculpture.

Today I certainly feel that I am destined for the field of sculpture.