ABINASH SAHU 
Twenty-one year old Subrat Maharana of Siminai village of Odapada block of Dhenkanal hogged the attention of the people after a replica of Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir made by him with ice-cream sticks was published in several local newspapers of the state.
With his will power and dedication, he has shaped his imagination into a form of art and crafts which is garnering everyone’s appreciation for his craftmanship.
Subrat, an Arts graduate from Siminai College, Dhenkanal was interested in art and crafts since his childhood. At the age of five, he started making crafts from matchsticks. Gradually, developing from that, he started making different art and crafts.
When asked about the replica Subrat said, “after I saw the design of Ayodhya’s ram mandir, I decided to make its replication using Ice-cream sticks. I was dedicating almost seven hours a day in building the temple and used 2500 ice-cream sticks to build the whole temple. It took him around seven days to complete the work.”
Apart from this, is also a sand artist and had made many sand arts at different fests and events in Puri, Konark and Dhenkanal.
He was lauded with praise across the state for building this masterpiece.
