Noted sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik on Tuesday paid tribute to Dr Abdul Kalam by creating a four-foot sculpture of the ex-President at the Puri beach.
The structure had a message ‘Tribute to common man, Missile Man, Bharat Ratna, People’s President’. Pattnaik recalled that Kalam had invited him for the first time to the Rastrapati Bhawan in 2005 at a time when sand art was not a famous art in the country and encouraged him a lot.
“It was a great honour to receive a cheque of Rs 3,000 from Kalam from his personal account. He was an inspiration for youths in true sense,” said Patnaik.
Similarly, eminent sand artist Manas Kumar Sahoo also shaped a five-foot statuette of Dr Kalam on the beach near the lighthouse as a tribute to the Missile Man of India.