Spot famous national, state leaders on custard apple

It was not an easy task as he made a portrait on each fruitlet (berry). He had to make the choice of nationally renowned freedom fighters and those from the state, as the varying shapes of each berry had to bear the portrait of a leader whose face would fit into it.

The artist painted the base of each fruitlet orange, dried it and then drew the portraits using a marker pen. Raja said that he chose the oval shaped fruitlet for Mahatma Gandhi, a round bubbly one to draw Sardaar Vallabh Bhai Patel, long one for Bhagat Singh, bottle shaped bit to draw Rabindranath Tagore, square like for Dr Rajendra Prasad and triangular one for Bharathiar. “It took more time to dry it and I struggled to avoid smudging,” he said.

“Students are curious to identify those in these tiny fruitlets.

I drew it on custard apple as we cherish the fruit of the freedom because of the sufferings they underwent,” he said.