A creative security guard at Raja Street, Mandaveli

Meet Mohan Raj, a security guard at Dwarka Apartments, Raja Street, Mandaveli, who draws, paints and makes upcycled products during his free time.

On May 10, when the security guards of most of the other apartments in this street were taking a quick nap before their night duty, Mohan was busy colouring the Krishna painting that he had recently made.

Mohan stays at this apartment and maintains all the work like plumbing, gardening and cleaning. But, his passion is sketching. He sketches different portraits and sceneries whenever he finds some time.

He says, “After finishing all my work, even if I get 10 minutes, I start drawing.” And he seems to be good at it. He shows more than 20 of his paintings. In all of them, one can see the exact copy of the original pictures with minute details.

To colour his pictures, Mohan uses crayons and paints that are thrown away in the dustbins.

“Apart from this, he also makes upcycled products. Recently, he made a small pooja model with surf excel box. He joined a broken Saibaba idol, creatively painted it and placed it inside the surf box (open on one side). Later, he fixed a bulb and made it glow,” says Ganga Sridhar, a resident of this apartment.

“Impressed by his pooja model, now a nearby shopkeeper has asked him to do one for him,” she adds.