A unique gift — a short biography written on rice, sesame and mustard seeds — awaits US President Barack Obama on his visit to India this November.
President Pratibha Patil has asked Gajendra S. Wadhonkar, an artist from Aurangabad who specialises in writing on tiny grains, to prepare a souvenir for President O
bama. “Presi-dent Pratibha Patil has asked me to write a short biography of US President Obama which will be given to him when he arrives in India,” Wadhonkar said.
He will search for the information on the Internet and then get it approved by the President’s office before putting it on the grains. In a letter of appreciation, the President wrote, “I appreciate the painstaking efforts and skills of Mr Wadhonkar in painting images of Sikh Gurus and the text of Sri Sukhmani Sahib. His work requires immaculate skill, patience and tenacity. He has shown how the smallest grain has value and that there is no limit to human creativity.”
Wadhonkar is blessed with the rare quality of being able to see very tiny things. He says he can write over 1,500 letters on a grain of rice and can make a portrait of a person in two-and-a-half minutes.
Wadhonkar, a marketing professional, began writing on grain four years ago. “I was teaching my children painting. Some rice was lying by my side. While the children were busy doing their work, I started writing on rice. I found it interesting and wrote on a handful of rice and painted a few portraits. Everybody liked it, I was encouraged,” Wadhonkar said.