Shanmugha Vilasom HSS in Kollam has 290 portraits of them fixed on walls

Kollam: The walls of Shanmugha Vilasom Higher Secondary School at Clappana here are  adorned with the portraits of great men and women. The school has found a place in the prestigious national records instituted by the Universal Records Forum for its open portrait gallery.  It has a total of 290 portraits drawn and fixed on the walls and has been  adding a number of portraits each year since 1986. The idea was suggested  by headmaster P. Prabhakaran and the open gallery was opened to the  public by the then chief secretary R. Ramachandran Nair.   The majority of the portraits were drawn by artist and drawing teacher C.K. Sreedharan from Elavumthitta from Pathanamthitta.

“The open gallery helps the students in  many ways. While learning social studies lessons, it  helps them to understand the biographies of personalities from the caption given to those portraits. The portraits have been drawn with stumping powder using stumping stick and not oil paint. Therefore, the  pictures  retain their originality even after decades. The frame this time is constructed using teak wood. A portrait would cost around Rs. 2750,  including the inscription of caption in stone,” Mr L.K. Dasan, teacher and the coordinator of the open gallery, told DC. Every year, during the annual celebrations at the school, new portraits are being added, including ten this year.  The personalities unveiled include O.N.V. Kurup, M.S. Swaminathan, K.O. Aishabhai, Thilakan, Fidel Castro, Kalabhavan Mani, cartoonist Sankar, M.V. Devan, Kavalam Narayana Panicker and Pope John Paul II.