It is your regular Gentamicin bottle but look closely and you will find the Seven Wonders of the World standing pretty inside the bottle. As one wonders how the seven wonders fit into an injection bottle, its creator, artist V. Ramesh Raaja, reveals they are all made of chalk. The Mahbubnagar-based artist-cum-drawing teacher has already made it to the India Book of Records for this piece of wonder.
Ramesh Raaja’s tryst with chalk began with Hyderabad. “I casually carved a Charminar out of chalk and inserted it inside an injection bottle,” he recalls. The appreciation he received for this piece of work encouraged him to think big. “I decided to create something which is universally loved and celebrated all over,” he says. He chose the Seven Wonders of the World and worked on it for three days. “It is not easy to work with a chalk— it is fragile and can break easily,” he says. He created different elements of the seven wonders, delicately bonded them with a fevicol and inserted them in a bottle. “While the bottle’s total height is 3.3 cm, its inner height is 2.25 cm; lid diameter is 0.75 cm and inner bottom diameter is 1.4 cm. You can imagine how careful one has to be while inserting the creations. Among the seven wonders, the statue of Christ the Redeemer was tough to create as the hands, hair and beard of Jesus had to be created separately and joined,” he remembers.
This Gentamicin bottle with its Wonders was Ramesh’s constant companion until he got an entry in the record books. “I used to carry it in my pocket and show it to friends. After the recognition, I realised it is a prized possession and needs to be treated with care,” he smiles.
As an artist Ramesh works with different media like canvas and oil, acrylics, pen and watercolours. His interest lies in traditional subjects like mythology, nature and temples in India. “Fascinated by our culture, foreigners leave the west and come to India to spend some time here. But we Indians are indifferent and neglect our rich tradition,” he rues.
His works Ajantha 19 cave, an exquisite drawing of Somnathpura, Gomateshwara temple, Ekashila ratham are all unique works of art. “The viewer might not notice it but one has to understand the structure well to draw a temple and get its symmetry,” he says. Besides Hyderabad, the artist has shown his works in Mumbai, Aurangabad, Anantapur and Jadcharla. On a parting note he says his dream is to be known as a ‘great traditional artist.’
