A Santipur youth is all set to make a bid to enter the Guinness World Records while paying tribute to the slain soldiers of the nation when India celebrates its 74th Independence Day on August 15.
Anupam Sarkar, 33, is recreating the logo of Amar Jawan Jyoti with matchsticks as he attempts to enter the record book for the largest matchstick logo.
The existing Guinness record for the largest matchstick logo is held by Meysam Rahamani of Qazvin in Iran. On June 11, 2013, Rahamani made the Unesco logo using 1,36,951 wooden matchsticks.
Sarkar, a mimicry artiste by profession, has already used 2.2 lakh wooden matchsticks to create the mosaic of the Amar Jawan Jyoti. The creation is almost in its final stages for display at the Kashyap Para Chakfera temple in Santipur on August 15 in the presence of senior government officials as witnesses.
In an email giving approval to Sarkar’s bid, Guinness World Records said: “After the attempt, you do not need to send the evidence by post: you can upload it (including scanned documents, videos and pictures) on the Guinness World Records website.”
Nadia district administration has come forward to support Sarkar’s endeavour. Since any public gathering is prohibited amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the district administration has taken charge of ferrying the canvas to the temple, managing people’s access to the temple and other logistics, Santipur block development officer Suman Debnath said. “We will also bear a part of the expenses for creating the work of art,” the BDO added.
The Amar Jawan Jyoti is a memorial that pays tribute to the soldiers of the Indian armed forces who died in the India-Pakistan war in 1971. The memorial at India Gate, New Delhi, was unveiled by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1972.
Sarkar said that he always wanted to pay a tribute to soldiers who died for the nation. With the lockdown, he had time on his hands for his long-cherished dream of making the “largest matchstick logo”.
The work requires infinite patience. Sarkar began work on a 6ft x 4ft plywood board on May 15. So far, he has used over 2.2 lakh wooden matchsticks for which he bought 15,000 matchboxes. “I drew an outline of the Amar Jyoti Jawan on the plywood board and pasted the matchsticks one by one using an adhesive to create the image...For the past three months, I have been working for 10 hours a day to give shape to my dream project,” Sarkar said.
