Cremation tomorrow, artist sculpts Fauja’s statues

As the family of legendary marathoner Fauja Singh and residents of Beas village are making arrangements for the huge gathering expected at his funeral on Sunday, an artist from Ghal Kalan village of Moga has been quietly readying two statues of the late 114-year-old runner as a tribute to him.

Manjit Singh Gill has made the statues — a 2.5-foot-high bust for mounting on a wall in Fauja Singh's Beas village in Adampur and a 6-foot-high full-size model in which he will be seen in the running pose. The artist intends to keep the full-size statue of the marathoner at Mahan Desh Bhagat Park in his village.

Even though the finishing touches to the statue are yet to be given, anyone seeing the work can get awed with the perfection that has come in the work in terms of style of turban, flowing beard, body posture and kind of shoes the veteran runner used to wear.

Gill said, “I was so moved by the accidental death of Fauja Singh. I always regarded him as one of the biggest fitness gurus. Not just the elderly, even youngsters across the globe drew inspiration from him, and so did I. Just a day after his tragic death, I made up my mind to make his statue using clay. I started with the bust, but eventually planned to make a full statue too. I have decided to present the statue at Beas village as soon as it gets ready.”

Since time has been short, Gill’s entire family, including his brother, son and daughter, are helping him. Gill is a trained artist from Arts College in Chandigarh. He passed out in 2009 and the very next year he got the job as a Class 1 officer in the Department of Museums.. But in five years, he quit the job to follow his passion.

Having a farming background, he has set apart a 2-acre land from his farm for his private park where he has erected over 45 statues of legends, including Milkha Singh, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Dr Manmohan Singhand APJ Abdul Kalam.

Fauja Singh’s family and village residents have started making arrangements for the last rites of Fauja Singh. The marathoner, who had passed away in a hit-and- run case on July 14, had expressed his desire for his final rites to be conducted at his native village. The family has since then been waiting for all family members to reach the village. Harvinder Singh, Fauja Singh's son, said “My sister has already arrived, and my brother will reach today.”

Panchayat members said, “We might not be able to accommodate the gathering in the small crematorium that we have. So we are looking for the best possible option to ensure that everyone can see him one last time".