There’s a large shark sun-bathing by the crashing waves. It measures seven feet long and three feet high. A group of young boys in vests and shorts fuss over it — one is carving out its gills with a sharp object, each slit at precisely the same distance from the other; two are engrossed in giving the fish its razor-sharp teeth, while the others are busy with the dorsal fin and tail. Sand sculptor Gajendran E. stands by giving them instructions and occasionally assisting his students manoeuvre through the tough features. “So what is this that you boys are making?” he asks for the benefit of the gathered audience. “It is a whale,” his students reply. “Shark,” he corrects and they look sheepish.
A student of hotel management, Gajendran started off as a Commis Chef at The Sheraton Park Hotel and Towers, he then moved to Florida to work with the Carnival Cruise Lines. That’s where he got acquainted with the art of vegetable carving. Finally, he landed a job at Crowne Plaza, Kuwait. “That was 2013. Later that year, my father passed away and I came back to India. One day I dreamt I was being chased by an elephant. I kept running. It finally stopped me and as I prayed for it to leave, it blessed me and walked away. I asked my mother what it meant, and she asked me to pray,” he says. That very year, for Vinayaka Chaturthi, he made two Ganesha idols in clay by following a few vegetable carving techniques. He then went to the beach and attempted creating sculptures out of sand and that’s how Gajendran got hooked on to sand sculpting.
“I learnt on my own. Did a lot of research and reading,” he says, as he makes a ball of sand and throws it up in the air. “That’s to check the quality of the sand. If it breaks mid-air the quality isn’t good,” he says.
His passion for this art form made him leave his career in the catering industry. “I was earning around Rs. three lakhs per month. Here I earn around Rs. 20,000-40,000 per month. But I am happy doing what I love,” he adds, gently holding up a handful of sand and letting it slip through his fingers.
The first few times when Gajendran would sit by the sea attempting to create something, people gathered would mock him for being jobless and playing in the sand. Now they stand around in appreciation.
“I want people to recognise my work and someday have a record to my credit,” says the artiste, who apart from his usual haunt, Kovalam beach, has created sculptures at the Marina and Elliot’s beach as well, and is invited by several resorts and amusement parks to show off his skills.
After learning the nitty-gritties of sand sculpting, Gajendran has been training people in sand, ice and vegetable carving for a year now. He started his school, the Future Food Carvers Training Institute in Tambaram.
“But the distance from the sea wasn’t helping. So I moved to Kelambakkam. My school here can accommodate only five students per course but I like it that way as I can give the students personal attention. Each batch lasts for two months,” he says.
After a day on the beach, Gajendran and his students drive back to the school in his bathed-in-sand Tata Sumo. There’s a giant screen on which the master then points out to his apprentices what they made and how it could be bettered and where they went wrong.
While students from catering colleges and the hotel industry are regulars he also gets children and couples coming over weekends to learn the craft. Sometimes IT professionals attend his workshops to de-stress. “There is something calming about sand, since you are one with the soil,” says the 28-year-old.
Sand sculpting also teaches patience, he believes. He and his students were once creating a statue of Thiruvalluvar. They started work at noon and just as the finishing touches were being worked on hours later, a portion of it crumbled under the weight of Gajendran’s hands.
The students were heart-broken but Gajendran began work again and an hour later the four-foot statue stood there looking grand and basking in the attention of the passers-by. “Sometimes, waves crash into our works and when we leave it overnight dogs run through them. I always keep pictures of everything I create,” he says, as he proudly shows me his phone gallery that’s filled with various works in sand. “This is my addiction and my first love.”
