Shilpi plans to gift Clinton a bust she has recently created. "I am goingabroad for the first time and that too for receiving an award to bepresented by President Clinton," says the sculptress living in Ahmedabad,the joy yet to sink in.

"I have got everything in my life. But I also feel disheartened that whilethe American people are praising my work, my own Gujarat government or theIndian government has not valued my work."

Shilpi is known as the Bronze Woman of India because of the more than 275bronze creations that she has crafted. The 52-year-old sculptor says, "Theseeds of art were sown in me since my childhood as my father and mother bothwere doing art work-printing."

Shilpi went to the C N College of Fine Arts in Ahmedabad where she learneteverything she could about art. When she was just 16, she went to Gwalior,Madhya Pradesh, as part of a study tour and was so fascinated by thehistorical statues she saw there that she decided to dedicate her life tosculpture. And then this sculptress fell in love with an art teacher and gotmarried to him in 1970. "My early days after marriage were terrible becausemy husband was a Muslim. My own relatives deserted me and did not allow meto enter their houses and kitchens. They cut off all ties with me and myfamily," Shipli recalls.

It was her work and her dedication to sculpture which sustained her duringthis difficult period. But after her first work, a life-size statue of B RAmbedkar, which was installed in the Gujarat city of Rajkot, there was nolooking back for Jashu Shilpi.

She continued to make sculptures of national leaders and counts her latestwork, the 18-foot-high bronze statue of Lakshmibai, queen of the erstwhilekingdom of Jhansi, as one of her best creations. The statue shows acombatant Laxmibai, with her child slung on her back, on a horse strainingat its reins. It weighs 4,500 kilos and is the tallest and heaviest statuemade by a woman sculptor in the country. It took five months of dedicationby this master sculptor.

Shilpi was nominated for the prestigious Millennium Woman Award after one ofher relatives wrote to the American Biographical Institute about herachievements. Though she has been given 15 minutes to deliver a speech atthe presentation function, she regrets it because of her poor command ofEnglish. Her speech will be read out by someone. She, however, is happyabout her slide show and an exhibition of her works, which includessculptures of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, Bill Clintonand pop icon Michael Jackson.

-- IANS