Chellamma: The Woman Who Turned Herself Into Art
Every morning at 10 sharp, she arrives hair neatly tied, face calm, sari pleats just so. She takes her seat under the soft white light of the sculpture hall and assumes her position. Not a blink, not a twitch. For six hours straight, Chellamma Ravi sits as still as a stone quite literally.
You’d be forgiven for wondering if she’s been kidnapped by the fine arts gods of Tripunithura. Or if she’s under some artistic spell. But no she’s there by choice, by legacy, and by sheer love for the world of art.
Chellamma, who thinks she may be around 70 now (“I’ve lost count,” she smiles), has been the official model for the sculpture department at RLV College of Music and Fine Arts in Kochi for the past 12 years. Her face sharp, expressive, and quietly dignified has been chiseled into dozens of busts by generations of students.
Before her, it was her husband Ravi who posed for the students. After his passing, Chellamma stepped in not just to fill a chair, but to carry forward a relationship with art that became deeply personal. “I didn’t want to break the rhythm,” she says. “The students needed a face. I gave mine.”
She was once paid a modest ₹350 for this unblinking devotion. Now, thanks to revised government norms, she earns ₹730 a day. “It’s not about the money,” she says, during her single one-hour lunch break, “It’s about being part of something bigger than me something that will outlast me.”
Every year, new hands sculpt her. Some with nervous caution, others with bold ambition. Yet in every bust, you’ll find something unchanged: the serene stillness of a woman who has become a part of the college’s very foundation.
In corridors, in classrooms, in unfinished corners of clay and stone Chellamma’s face lives on. She may be flesh and blood outside, but inside RLV College, she’s already a monument.
When asked what keeps her going, she laughs gently. “These students… they talk to me, ask about life, share their dreams. They make me feel like I’m still 25.”
Turns out, Chellamma hasn’t just sat still for 12 years. She’s been quietly watching art grow and in return, she’s become art herself.