It is a farmer’s tribute to his parents that can be seen only from the sky, or rather through the lens of a drone. Gangaram Chinni Krishnudu, a farmer who lives in a non-descript village 35 km from Nizamabad, has used three varietals of paddy seeds to create an image of his parents on a one-acre plot of his agricultural land. “My parents passed away 21 years ago. They educated me till Class 6 and this is my humble way of remembering them and showing it to the world,” said Chinni Krishnudu, who has created a name for himself by growing legacy rice in the country.
As a drone flies over the unending emerald green of lush paddy fields in Chintaloor village, the shape of a man with a turban and a woman with bindi and jewellery comes into view. “It took much persuasion and passion to create this. I hired a reluctant signboard painter and gave him a photograph of my parents. Then he bought ropes and stakes to create the lines,” says the farmer who used Japanese farm practices as inspiration.
Using his knowledge of coloured paddy plants, Chinni Krishnudu used three varietals of paddy — Panacharatna to create a light pink border around the field; Bangaru gulabi, a dark rose colour plant to mark the facial features of his parents, and surrounded it with Chintaluru sannalu which is a light green plant. “I worked for four days with workers to plant the varietals within the rope markings to create the lines that Mahadev, the signboard painter, had created,” says the farmer whose sons live and work in the U.S.
Within a month, the features and outline of his mother Bhoodevi and father Muttenna were clearly visible. Then, he hired a drone for ₹3,500 to check the image for himself. “People from surrounding villages come here and leave with a smile on their faces,” says the farmer who has strung a tricolour on a flagpole just outside his farmland.
