THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: You could say it all began with a broken leg. Years ago. Young Sajan Skaria was in class 6 then. An accident had left him with a broken leg and bedridden.
“We had to leave for work, but before we left, we would hand him blank sheets of paper. He would fill them with pictures. That’s how he started drawing,’’ seated at her home in Nalanchira on Monday, Sajan’s mother Thankamma Skaria recalled.
Only hours ago, and half a world away, Sajan Skaria, 42, was part of the jubilant crew of Pixar Animation Studios whose ‘Inside Out’ won the Oscar for best animated feature.
Sajan is character supervisor with Pixar, which boasts of such hits like ‘Toy Story’ and ‘Finding Nemo.’
Sajan joined Pixar in 2001, and lives in San Francisco with his artist wife Mary Ann and children Esha and Zack. His parents K Skaria and Thankamma live at Ebenezer Lane, Nalanchira, quite close to the Mar Ivanios College where Skaria used to teach zoology. ‘’We were expecting it really. We got up at 5.30 in the morning and watched the ceremony live on Star Movies,’’ a visibly elated Thankamma, a former chemistry teacher at St Goretti’s School, said.
On the teapoy before the couple lay old albums filled with pictures of their youngest son accepting prizes for his cartoons from personalities like Padmarajan and Malayattoor Ramakrishnan. ‘’He used to participate in all the cartoon competitions as a youngster,’’ Thankamma said.
Sajan is the youngest of Skaria’s and Thankamma’s three sons. The eldest, Abu Skaria is an engineer with Michelin in Chennai and Jacob is a doctor in England. Sajan did his schooling at Sarvodaya High School and his pre-degree at Mar Ivanios, before joining REC Calicut.
For a year after that he worked at Siemens in Bangalore, before signing up for an MS in Animation at Texas A&M University.