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: csumesh08@yahoo.in.
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By Baburaj VK for CalicutNet.com
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