Giri Kumar has restored many great works of Indian art

Forty-something Giri Kumar is an art restorer, a calling he found after doing a BSc. After he had completed his schooling and graduation in Kollam, Kerala, he faced the question of all fresh graduates. "I was not sure how to get into this profession. The question was whether I should take up physics at masters level or if should go the creative way?" he recalls. Then, he enrolled for a course on conservation of art atu00a0 the National Gallery of Modern Artu00a0 in Delhi and joined INTECH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage). Soon, he moved to Florence where he spent a year working on different aspects of art conservation. He remebers the day he first laid eyes on Michael Angelo's David and Ghiberti's John the Baptist. "I felt privileged to handle all this, " he said.
Some of the memorableu00a0 restoration work Giri has done includes works of Raja Ravi Varma, Amrita Sher Gill,u00a0 Nandalal Bose and even Rabindranath Tagore.

It was in 2003 that he moved to Pune. "We love Pune. It is so peaceful too," he added. By 'we' he meant his wife Radhika Sahgal, whom he met at INTACH and who works shoulder to shoulder with him. "Giri is a thorough professional and gives all that he has into his work." The couple has a five-year-old daughter Ambica.