For five years, 57-year-old K. Thyagarajan ideated on
how to innovate on the antique Grandmother’s clock. For this clock
mechanic from Paruthipara in the city, it would not have been a
challenge, what with 35 years of experience in the field.
But
building a Grandmother’s clock that is hardly three-inches-and-a-half
tall and weighing 30 g, and making sure it still showed the right time
after carefully winding it with a crank smaller than a safety pin was
indeed a challenge for him.
“I wanted to make
something innovative and decided to create a miniature model of my
favourite pendulum clock, an antique piece that I have at home. I knew
that creating a battery-operated model was easy and the challenge was to
work out a model with a winding key, which requires much precision for
it to work properly,” said the mechanic, a high-school drop out.
“The
reason why I did not venture into making one even when the idea was in
my mind for many years is because I was not sure if my practical
experience alone would suffice to achieve my goal. But then I decided to
give it a try,” said Mr. Thyagarajan, who runs his own clock-repair
shop. However, this is not the first time that he has taken up such
challenges. In 1982, he designed a clock on the model of the famous
‘methan mani’ or the clock tower opposite the Padma Theertham at East
Fort.
He agreed that much thought had gone into
understanding the original work, which has two goats and a butcher’s
face engraved on it. Whenever the clock strikes, the goats hit the
butcher’s face from both sides and he opens his mouth. In 1987, he was
tasked with the maintenance work of an age-old clock at the
Padmanabhapuram palace in Kanyakumari district.
Mr.
Thyagarajan’s creation has already received much attention from his
friends and family, who are encouraging him to take up the challenge of
building an even smaller clock. And Thyagarajan says he has already
started working on the model.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/grandmother-clock-gets-a-granddaughter/article4829630.ece
