CHAKWAL, Aug 18: There is a small shop in poor condition located on Chakwal-Choa Syedan Shah Road  near Thirpal village where a man is found absorbed in carving a lion all day long.

Irfan Sadiq, 39, is trying his best to give a final shape to the white lion being carved from Plaster of Paris but he is unlikely to achieve his goal as Rs300,000 is required to buy fibre glass, which is a prerequisite to complete the work.

“I started work on the lion with the thinking that one day I would complete it but now I’m in severe distress as I have no money to complete it,” he adds.

The lion being created by Irfan is eight feet in length and 1,000kg in weight. “I know that my adventure would go waste as to get fibre glass seems quite impossible for me,” he said.

Irfan Sadiq is also at home in calligraphy, making sculptures and woodwork. The story of Sadiq is quite inspirational. He fell in love with calligraphy when he was in his earlier teens.

“Once I went to Nisar Arts and expressed my desire to his owner Nisar, he just rebuked me by saying, “making paintings is not a child’s play and you could not do such kind of great work”.   The remarks, he said, stuck to his mind and he resolved to be an artist.

Hailing from a poor family, Irfan migrated to Karachi to earn bread and butter for his family. In Karachi, he started making paintings at a footpath. Once, the then vice-chairperson of Karachi Arts Council Nusrat Azmat while passing by footpath saw the creations of Irfan which left her surprised.

“It was my painting of Christ which caught the attention of Nusrat and after this she invited me to Karachi Arts Council where a British couple bought the painting for $450”, he recalled.

In Karachi his paintings were included in World Millennium Show. Nusrat also encouraged Irfan in oil work.  The brief span of happy moments ended soon as Irfan had to return to home due to some severe domestic problems at home.

The money he earned by selling his paintings were spent on the marriages of his three younger brothers and two sisters.

A couple of year ago Irfan developed some kidney problem and now his health is deteriorating. “I visited district headquarters hospital where the doctors have suggested me to go to a kidney centre in Rawalpindi but I could not afford the expensive treatment,” he says with a heavy heart.

Despite severe distress, the aims of Irfan remain high. “I want to carve ninety-nine names of Allah by ninety-nine different scripts”, he said.