His penchant for art has not only brought laurels, but also fetched him several records. Though eyeing records is itself not the end for Diyya Ananda Raju, it has proved to be the means to reach out to the last art lover in society.
Mr. Raju, who works as an art teacher at Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential School and Junior College, Pulivendula, is a familiar name in the field of school education and the arena of drawing and painting. From Lord Ganesha to Mahatma Gandhi, his style of depicting an icon is loaded with panache.
The art teacher shot to fame with his 1,016 paintings of Lord Ganesha. “For any art lover, the elephant-headed Ganesha is the easiest and most versatile among the Indian pantheon of gods. He can be easily depicted in any number of ways,” Mr. Raju says in an interview to The Hindu.
He claims his to be the largest such collection of Ganesha images in the country, which includes 700 line drawings and the rest in painting format. He depicted Ganesha as a ‘Kalasam’ (earthen pot), Sankhu (conch) and other sacred forms, apart from in standing, sitting and lying postures. The array of paintings was displayed at CP Brown Library on the occasion of Vinayaka Chavithi last year.
The other major attraction is the 71 metre-long national flag designed by him, which was proudly presented at the Kadapa parade grounds commemorating the 71st Independence Day. The interesting feature of the flag is not just its mammoth size, but the way the ‘Ashoka Chakra’ was replaced by a bust image of Mahatma Gandhi, created with one lakh sticker ‘bindis’. The flag idea not only brought him accolades from the then Cabinet Ministers Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy and C. Adinarayana Reddy, but also a coveted place in 20 national and international record books.
On the move
Armed with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, Mr. Anand Raju has put up over 20 solo and thirty group art shows at various exhibitions in the State. He has recently received the ‘Excellent teacher icon award 2019’ from Uttar Pradesh Book of Records.
