Some materials refuse to retire, they wait. In 2016, while preparing for TEDxHyderabad, I found myself surrounded by remnants of another life discarded X-ray sheets, fragments of plastic waste, leftovers from systems that had already extracted their utility and moved on. What most would call refuse became my medium. Those translucent X-ray films, once carriers of medical stories, came together to form a portrait of Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam a man who himself stood at the intersection of science, vision and humanity. It amazes me to great extent how the the dots connect through discarded materials.
August 2025, in Bangalore at GSS GoSharpener, these materials found their next new purpose. As I began crafting a portrait of Sir M. Visveshvaraya, I realised I wasn’t starting from scratch I was continuing a journey. The same discarded materials returned, this time re-organised, reimagined, and reassembled to honour another nation-builder. An engineer, a thinker, a systems man. Honoured to have shared the stage with highly knowledgable professionals including principals from renowned institutions.
