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.”