Acharya enters Guinness World Records for his feat

Here’s a young man who wields the surgeon’s scalpel not for medical emergencies but for carving miniature sculptures on pencil lead.

When Surendra Acharya, 32, a helper at the MESCOM sub-station in Karkala, Udupi district, gets going on a piece of graphite, he deftly sculpts a Mother Teresa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a parrot cage, Lord Vishwakarma, and Jesus Christ.

So unique is his feat that he has entered the Guinness World Records for the ‘Most links carved from pencil lead (graphite)’, which was performed at Karkala on April 7. He carved 58 links from pencil lead in front of four gazetted officers, breaking the record set by Abdul Baseer of Pakistan, who had carved 50 chain links from pencil lead at Gujranwala in Pakistan in 2018. Mr. Acharya will receive the coveted certificate in 20 days.

It was a report in a newspaper that inspired him to begin this artistic journey. “I read about this feat by an artist on a piece of chalk in the newspaper nine years ago. I was inspired and decided to sculpt on a different medium. I ultimately chose pencil lead,” he said.

Initially it was a struggle, but he soon mastered it. “Even now when I sculpt, the lead breaks sometimes,” he said.

He devotes time for the art after regular working hours. All he needs is a blade, a surgeon’s scalpel and a needle, along with patience and concentration. “Many a time, the sculpture breaks just as I am giving the finishing touches and I get upset. But I start again,” he said.

Mr. Acharya is not one to rest on his laurels. He aims to sculpt poses of Yakshagana and Bharatanatyam next.

Mr. Acharya is a diploma holder in fire and safety. His father is a farm worker, while his mother is a dairy farmer.

He has been a temporary worker with Mescom for the last 10 years and is hopeful that his service is regularised soon.