There is a thin line of difference between time pass and time waste. When given a free hour, it is in one’s own hands to utilize the time in a productive or non-productive activity. Likewise, the hero of this article Mannvar Khan Pathan, a 57-year-old Pen Artist, nurtured his art while travelling alone.

M.K. Pathan was born in Falna near Pali district of Rajasthan and was brought up in Jodhpur. He works as Sports Instructor in Central Government schools, due to which reasons he has travelled and stayed in various parts of the country.

Pathan was passionate of carving faces on paper since his childhood; he used pencils in his early days before perfecting his art with ball point pen. Pathan recalls, “It was in the year 2002 when I was posted in Nagaland, because of which I started travelling frequently. The long and boring journey by train gave me an opportunity to pick up my passion for sketches and I started making sketches with ball pen”.

He said, “When I used to make sketches my fellow travelers used to curiously stare at my paper and fancied faces in my sketches, which always gave me required motivation to continue with the art”, said M.K Pathan.

Elaborating on his transformation from pencil sketch art to ball point pen sketches, Pathan mentioned, “It was my daughter who first suggested me to carve out faces using pen instead of pencil; she told me, it will be the real challenge for me, as a line drawn would not be erasable and eventually lead me to perfection in my work. She wants me to be counted amongst the rare artists”.

Consequently, taking inspiration from the words of his daughter and his own desires for perfecting his art, Pathan started using pen instead of pencil. Pathan has created pen sketches of many celebrities, politicians and business tycoons.

From around 3 years Pathan is posted in Udaipur at Kendra Vidhyalaya Number 2 in Eklingarh, where he teaches his art to the students, along with various games; while, Pathan himself has never undergone any formal training for his art.

After being posted in Udaipur, life of this artist is devoted to Pen Art. M.K. Pathan has been featured in various news papers and local media; and as a result he got his due recognition.

In sequence of appreciation Pathan was honored by District Collector on 26^th January 2013. He has also received a letter of appreciation from Ratan Tata for making his sketch; and moreover he will be honored by Arvind Singh Mewar next year in MMCF (Maharan Mewar Charitable Foundation) Annual Appreciation.

Talking about the next step, Pathan said that he is planning to hold an exhibition where he will display his art work so created on the theme of ‘Expressions of Indian Women’. The idea behind this exhibition is to receive feedback on the quality of his art; the art work will also be available for purchase at a reasonable price.