PALAKKAD: Often, tough times bring out the best in people. Time and again, individuals have demonstrated how the Covid times have provided them an opportunity to turn creative. M S Pranav, a first year LLB student at the Government Law College, Kozhikode, had enough free time with classes held online.
“I had a taste for crafts during schooldays. During the lockdown, through You Tube, I came to know more about the India Book of Records. I also came to understand that there was no records in the craft category. Therefore, I decided to create musical instruments using glass bottles and other waste materials,” Pranav said.
And he has made it to the India Book of Records for creating the maximum number of models of musical instruments using glass bottles. The certificate recognising the effort -- received on April 6, the day of the assembly elections in Kerala -- stated that he created five aesthetic models of musical instruments including guitar, veena, violin, harmonium and piano using discarded waste glass bottles, spray paint, acrylic colours, cardboard, chart paper, thermocol and strings.
Pranav -- a resident of Gandhi Nagar in Kootupatha, Mundur -- first contacted the Faridabad office of the India Book of Records. “They stated that I should register myself, which I did. They also asked me to send a write-up of 3,000 words on what I proposed to do for securing a record in the crafts category. I wrote that I planned to make five musical instruments,” he said.
The work had to be completed in seven days. He also had to submit photographs and a video of the making of the instruments. “It took nearly a full day to complete each instrument. The video footage of the process was taken and each one ranged from 36 minutes to 50 minutes. In five days, I made the instruments. In the remaining two days, I edited and uploaded the video,” said Pranav.He lives with parents M Suresh Kumar, a home guard attached to the Malampuzha police station, and mother Sreeja, a housewife.