Like many other young graduates today, Vaishak Seraphim works hard to pay off his student loan.
It’s not his full-time job that sets this 28-year-old Bengalurean apart from the rest, but his skill and passion for re-engineering and customisation.
Give Vaishak a clock and watch him strip the instrument down within minutes. He dismantles the piece, alters the mechanism so the hands of the clock move in the anti-clockwise direction.
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A marketing professional by day, Vaishak takes to making anti-clockwise clocks the rest of the time. The mechanical engineering graduate also prides himself in building a clock from scratch, with custom-made dials and hands.
That’s not all, he also reengineers or builds guitars. While his reengineered guitars are in high demand, the artist admits he attended a two-week workshop on work to learn to craft his own string instrument. Apart from this, his interest also includes painting – walls to bottles, and making customised t-shirts, jackets and clothing accessories.
Recounting how it all began, he says, "I remember how the whiteness of my bedsheets would annoy me. So, I started off with a marker and then someone suggested I should use fabric paint."
“I have not got any formal training in art, all what I have learnt is mostly trial and error. Now, if I see a piece of clothing, I think what is it that is missing? Then I make it myself,” adds Vaishak.
Inspiration for innovation comes from unusual places. Vaishak got the idea to build an anti-clockwise clock from a close friend. “A friend of mine was at a café in Bengaluru and he noticed a clock with hands revolving the other way. It slipped into one of our conversations and I thought that is something I could do," he recalls.
So why did this creative artist pursue engineering?
Unlike many, Vaishak says he was not forced into engineering. His fascination for how machines work made him pursue Mechanical Engineering. But at the end of four years he was left disappointed. “Core-engineering jobs were hard to come by, most of the companies which came were offering software related roles,” he notes.
Having begun as a freelance designer three years ago, the innovator sells his customised things using social media or word of mouth. But he insists that he has no intention of collaborating with other artists or making his hobby become a full-time business.
