Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Jul 26: Mention of Raghavendra Mogaveera Kodlady evokes memories of magical transformation vegetables and fruits go through in his hands. Like the sculptors who breathe life into rocks and make them lively creations, Raghavendra has grown into an artist par excellence. Like mythological character, Ekalavya, Kodlady is a self-taught artiste who has perfected his art on the basis of passion, perseverance, and practice. The way this person from rural background has risen to be among one of the finest artistes, is just unparalleled, unbelievable, and extraordinary.

Kodlady is located in the rural belt of the taluk. This village is a hamlet which has been showing signs of progress since about a decade. Raghavendra, son of the late Rama Mogaveera and Neelavathi couple from this village, who has only completed primary education, was swayed by the lure of transforming vegetables into shapes that are aesthetically and artistically crafted. After realizing that some unique art is hidden within him, Raghavendra chose the work of transforming fruits and vegetables into lively artifacts. All along these years he inspired himself, became his own guide, and tried to bring to life his vision. In phases, he slowly mastered the art and emerged as an excellent artist who can bring these things alive.

While we believe in cutting vegetables into slices or cubes to cook dishes, Raghavendra gets ideas as and when he handles vegetables like beetroot, brinjal, bitter gourd, okra, cucumber, ash gourd etc. He can make radish to bloom into beautiful flower like Champak. Raghavendra can convert water melon into hundreds of different shapes and sizes. Pumpkin is his favourite vegetable because he can create a large number of beautiful things out of them.

Ripe vegetables change into beautiful flowers in his hands. He can create red rose out of ripe vegetables, rose with loose petals out of watermelon, apart from flower vases, pitchers etc, vine out of papaya, crocodile out of bitter gourd, parrot out of pineapple, fish or two-headed bird out of pumpkin, penguin from brinjal, swan from apple, frog from capsicum and many more. These are only a handful of hundreds of items which come out of his hands beautifully.

Different kinds of knives are the only tools which he uses to create magic. He selects a vegetable suddenly and starts to move his knives through quick motions. Within minutes, he presents to you a beautiful artifact. Because of rising prices of vegetables, honing this skill has become difficult. Selecting of good quality and ideally sized vegetables, and arranging them artistically also proves to be a costly hobby. Raghavendra can rise to still greater heights if he gets support from art lovers.

Not only fruits and vegetables, he can bring to life unique things beyond one's imagination out of thermocol. He is also an excellent painter, for whom playing with colours is an enjoyable experience.

Raghavendra held his first ever exhibition of fruits and flowers at Sanjay Gandhi High School at Amparu near here about 12 years ago. Thereafter, he has exhibited his innate talent in front of lot of people at different parts of Karnataka. His exhibitions have won lot of appreciation at state level programmes, and many have said encouraging words to him. Government or other organizations or institutions have to identify such skills and felicitate and reward such achievers. We have to give more recognition and honour to the talent hidden inside such artists.

This man beautifully decorates temples, marriage halls, dais of meetings, stages of programmes etc. He only uses naturally available items, vegetables, and flowers for these decorations. The natural beauty his creations radiate are much more appeasing than artificial decorations. He is well-known for decorating dais for religious programmes by using banana stems, mango leaves, coconut fronds etc. He also is adept at tastefully decorating stages, vehicles, and occasions like birthdays.