Tributes have been pouring in from all quarters as the country’s decorated officer CDS Bipin Rawat left for his heavenly abode after the fatal crash of the Mi-17V5 Indian Air Force chopper on Wednesday, December 8. Amidst many such tributes pouring in for the fallen soldier, one particular has gone viral on social media. Since yesterday, several people on social media, including Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, actor Anupam Kher, Mahindra Group boss and Padma awardee Anand Mahindra and IPS officer HGS Dhaliwal have shared the leaf tribute created by and Karnataka-based artist Shashi Adkar for late CDS Rawat.
The artist shared his one-of-a-kind masterpiece on Facebook yesterday, in which he deftly carved CDS Bipin Rawat’s picture out of a peepal leaf. In a 0.26 video, Sandesh showed off his flawless piece of artwork, where he trimmed the epidermis of a peepal leaf with the most delicate and meticulous strokes to produce an identical image of the late CDS.
Sandesh Adkar, Shashi’s younger brother shared his brother’s artwork on Twitter captioning his post : “Om Shanthi adgpi Bipin Rawat Sir”, coupled with a crying face and folded hands emoji.
Om Shanthi adgpi Bipin Rawat Sir😢🙏@NagpurKaRajini @adgpi pic.twitter.com/KDOdkYYExv
— Sandesh (@sandeshadkar) December 9, 2021
This Tweet was soon picked up and reshared by many social media users. At the time of writing this report, the video had amassed over 23.3K likes, 5.6K reshares and 235 comments.
OpIndia spoke to Sandesh Adkar, Shashi Adkar’s younger brother who told us that professionally, Shashi helps his uncle in his business of building stage platforms for theatres and events. Shashi pursues this art form as a hobby said Sandesh, adding that Shashi suffers from a disability in his one leg but has never let this disability change his goals in life.
Artist gave similar tribute with his leaf art to Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar
On October 30, the artist had also paid a similar tribute to Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar.
According to his Facebook profile, Shashi Adkar, who currently resides in Mangaluru, originally hails from Sullis in Dakshina Kannada district of the state of Karnataka. He has done his schooling at Payaswini High School Jalsoor in Sullia, Karnataka and graduated from SSPU college Subrahmanya.
Last rites of CDS Bipin Rawat, his wife and Brigadier Lidder
The mortal remains of General Bipin Rawat, the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), is being cremated with full military honours today in the Brar Square crematorium in Delhi. Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttarakhand CM and Delhi CM paid homage to the late Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat at Brar Square in Delhi. The Rawats, along with 11 others, were killed in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor on Wednesday.