Kerala artist carves out famous personalities on coconut masks

Kerala, May 27 (ANI): Paramban Ittaman, a coconut climber of Valiyora village of Kerala's Kozhikode District, has carved out more than twenty-five facemasks of well-known leaders including US President Barack Obama, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Apart from facemasks of leaders, his collection also includes fruits, birds, animals and artifacts.

It was in 2005, when Ittaman performing his usual work of climbing coconut trees and plucking nuts noticed an unusual one resembling a bird and soon thought of giving it a shape.

Thus started his passion to carve selected curios and mask making.

He said the masks of Obama, Karzai and Manmohan Singh is so precious to him that many have asked and offered handsome money but he never want to sell it.

"I like these leaders very much as they represent powerful nations of the world and fortunately I could create them. For this I have taken a lot of effort especially for Obama. It took more than a week, usually it takes me to create a mask in one week but it was very hectic. Same with Manmohan Singh for making his turban," said Ittaman.

The artist has a fond wish to hand over these art pieces personally to these world leaders before he passes away.

Ittaman has earlier made the figures of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and several other prominent personalities. By Juhan Samuel (ANI)