On an early weekday morning, a scattering of sunrise watchers strolled along Marina Beach. Some lingered on the recently installed bamboo chairs, while a few paused to watch an artist bent intently over the sand. Holding nothing more than a flat wooden ice cream spoon and buckets of sea water, Karthik M. was building delicate triangular arches — the sand sculpture of the Thirumalai Jain Temple in Tiruvannamalai — starting his work early, before dawn.
For 28 years, this artist has built one sand sculpture after another, only to see each succumb to the inevitability of impermanence by the end of the day. And then he begins all over again, creating a new temple, fort, or monument.
