KASARGOD: At a time when Christmas has gone extravagant, Venkatesh Putta, a goldsmith in Kasargod, has tried to capture the spirit of the season in the infinitesimal.His nativity crib — representing the birth of Jesus — sits snugly on the tip of a match stick. "For the past several days I've been working on the crib. Every day after work, I spent some time carving and gluing up the nativity creche. It's ready now," said Putta, 31, who runs a jewellery making unit here. Apart from Infant Jesus, the crib has Mother Mary, Joseph, a few sheep and shepherds. "Love is in the detail," he said.
Putta's art transcends religion, politics and sports. Last Eid, he painted the Kaaba Black Stone of Makkah on a grain of rice. He then found space to write 'Eid Mubarak' on the same grain. "I don't use a magnifying glass or any special tools. I do it with a sewing needle and a blade," he said. He works with pencil lead, chalk, soap and rice grain. "I've been doing it for the past five years. That's how I relax now," he said.
Putta, a native of Mulleria, says writing on rice often went wrong. "Only the successful work is kept on display. It's painstaking," he said. He shot into limelight five years ago when he wrote 'Om Namah Shivaya' in Kannada 6,524 times on a postcard. "The work had 45,688 letters," said Putta, who used a 0.3 mm bold pen. His prized possession is a text portrait of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I drew him with the names of the 29 states of India," he said.