Sumesh, hailing from Kallachi, near Vatakara (Calicut district of Kerala) is a blossoming Tabala player, an artist and a fantastic sculptor. He proved his inborn talent in sculpture making by carving on an Areca nut. His piece has been telecasted through Surya TV, Manorma TV, and in the print media such as Mathrubhumi and Malayala Manorama.
He has been performing Tabala, and teaching it for the students in and around Kallachi for the past 12 years after getting his certification from Gandarva Maha Vidhyalaya, Mumbai. He has also received many awards, trophies, and prizes in school, Keralotsav etc. Finally, he is also a fine singer.
Look at the photographs herein, and all the objects are purely made up of Areca Nut which is common in kerala. He started designing with areca nut model first to make a pot. After getting many positive responses from friends and the people around him, he was inspired to improve his artisanship. He worked hard and went on to fine-tune his ability.
In the process, he crafted many items such as cups, saucers, tortoise, oil lamps, guitar, snakes, fish, trophies, jugs, elephants, banana, ducks etc. He is presently trying to carve many other variety of items also. Engraving work that he does, need much patience and well thought out design outlook also. To make an oil lamp, he uses three areca nuts. The top layer one, middle one, and the bottom one. He then uses superglue to paste it all together to create the object looking as good as the original. A long snake took him twenty eight areca nuts to build.
As he has done his Multimedia courses in computers, he would be more interested in working in the multimedia as a serious profession.
The Story of Areca Nut
Areca nut is the seed of Areca which is a group of tropical palm tree native to Asia and Africa. The tree belongs to the family of ‘Palmae’ and its scientific name is ‘areca catech’
There is a good reference on areca nut in a Chinese book written between 8th and 11th century. The very scientific name ‘Kramukum’ indicates the antiquity of areca farming in India. Philipines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Malasia, Singapore are the major countries where areca farming is popular. In the case of production of areca nuts, Kerala leads the world.
Areca has a round shaped and a thin trunk which grows straight. At its top, there may be six or seven palm leaves. The trunk will be approximately 18 to 24 inches in length. At the edges of each palm leaves, there is a nice and soft spathe which covers the duster of flowers including both male and female. When the flowers blossom, the outer layer or spathe is broken gradually. There is only one room in the ovary of female flowers and areca nut is the final product of the ovary. There is only a seed in the areca nut which contains tannil, galic acid, fat, glue arikolin alkaloid. Areca nut is an essential component of ‘Thambula’ and is highly related to the life of Keralites. When the areca is ripe, it is heated under the sun rays and it becomes hard areca nut or ‘Kottadakka’.
You can e-mail Mr. Sumesh at this adrress. Your response and feedback on this story is highly appreciated. Sumhesh’ email: [email protected].
