Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik paid tributes to late former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on the eve of his 84th birth anniversary by creating a sand sculpture at Odisha's Puri beach on Wednesday.
The internationally acclaimed sand artist created a five feet-high sculpture using about four tons of sand with the message" "Tribute to Dr. Abdul Kalam, 84th Birth Anniversary."
Kalam was born in Tamil Nadu's Rameswaram on October 15, 1931 and died in Shillong on July 27, 2015 after suffering a cardiac arrest during a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management.
Pattnaik said his students also played a major role in shaping the sculpture, which was thrown open for visitors at the beach.
"He was the first president who had invited me to the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2005 when sand art was not very known in our country and encouraged me a lot through his inspiring words," Pattnaik said.