One of His Type

Uday Talwalkar has been making portraits on a typewriter for the past 24 years

In one corner of the bedroom,the tuck-tuck sound continues. The sound doesnt bother Aditi Talwalkar. In fact,now she is used to the rare hobby of her husband. Having worked as a stenographer for a major part of his career,54-year-old Uday Talwalkar has been making portraits on a typewriter for the past 24 years.

Uday first took to this unique art form when he saw the TV interview of an international artist in 1989. Till this date,it is a rare hobby. There are only five to six people in the world who create pictures on the typewriter, he said.

Currently a managing director at Mazgaon Dock Limited,Uday started his career as a stenographer with Bombay Telephone Nigam Ltd. Uday has two typewriters at home a 20-year-old Olympia that he purchased from Moscow and a 15-year-old Godrej. Both typewriters are manual.

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During the five years Uday spent in Moscow as a part of his work assignment,he created a 22 feet X 13 feet portrait of Lata Mangeshkar. He spent 236 hours churning out the portrait which got entry into the Book of Alternative Records in London and the India Book of Records. So far,Uday has created over 35 portraits. The portraits of famous personalities include Amitabh Bachchan,Sunil Gavaskar,Dalai Lama,Sachin Tendulkar,Bal Thackeray,Leo Tolstoy,Lenin,Stalin and Ramdev Baba. He even had the privilege of gifting the portraits to Amitabh Bachchan,Sunil Gavaskar,Dalai Lama and Lata Mangeshkar.

Currently,Uday is working on a portrait of Bill Gates. The next one,he says,will be Obama. These are typically people who have excelled in their respective fields and so they inspire me. I enjoyed making the portraits of Tendulkar and Ramdev the most because the outcomes are extremely similar to their faces, he says. On an A3 size portrait,he approximately spends seven to eight hours.

When asked if he will switch to making portraits on a computer once his typewriters become dysfunctional,Talwalkar says,There is no real skill or art involved in that. With computer programs,anything is achievable. I will continue till my typewriters are functional. And both are functional as of now.

The most challenging part of this art is that there is no option of erasing. The entire portrait has to be redone even if a small error is committed. You have to work with concentration and patience. It is like a state of trance. I recently made a blunder while making Aishwarya Rais portrait. It was half done but I had to junk it, he said.

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Uday is close to achieving his dream now. Once the number of portraits created touch 40,Uday wants to hold an exhibition for the display.

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Lata Mangeshkar