In a world obsessed with speed, screens, and swipes, one man in Pune is quietly flipping the script—by balancing rocks.
Meet Gautam Vaishnav, a 32-year-old engineer-turned-artist who has made a name for himself through the seemingly impossible act of rock balancing. With no glue, wires, or trickery—just sheer patience and a deep understanding of gravity—Vaishnav creates stunning, temporary sculptures that look like they’re defying the laws of physics.
“It’s not magic. It’s just balance, breath, and being completely present,” says Vaishnav, a Computer Science graduate who left the tech world behind to follow his unlikely passion.
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It all began on a beach in Mahad, a small town along Maharashtra’s coast, where Vaishnav—after being challenged by a friend—spent 45 minutes trying to balance a brick on its corner.
“When it finally stood, something in me shifted,” he recalls. “All the stress, the noise—it just melted away. I felt weightless.”
From that single brick emerged a full-fledged practice that Vaishnav now calls “meditation in motion.” He travels to riversides, hills, and public parks around Pune, stacking rocks in ways that seem impossible to the naked eye. He also runs workshops that attract schoolkids, corporate employees, and even visually impaired participants.
Teaching blind students was one of his most profound experiences. “I had to close my own eyes to feel what they felt,” he says. “Balance became something entirely tactile—about touch, intuition, and trust.”
In his sessions with IT professionals, the goal shifts. “They spend all day in artificial environments. When I bring them outdoors and hand them a rock, it reconnects them with something real,” he explains.
Children, on the other hand, see it as a playful challenge. “If you tell them, ‘You can’t even balance a rock?’—their curiosity kicks in. And just like that, they forget about their phones.”
The rules of Vaishnav’s practice are simple: no adhesives, no hidden supports—just gravity. “The only glue we use is patience,” he jokes.
But the deeper purpose of his work is anything but lighthearted.
“People today are drowning in distractions and decision fatigue,” he says. “When they try to balance a rock, they’re forced into stillness. It’s a kind of sneaky meditation—you don’t even realize you're doing it, but your mind slows down.”
Globally, rock balancing is gaining recognition as an art form and therapeutic tool, and Vaishnav sees his practice as both ancient and modern. “Stone stacking is probably as old as humanity—maybe even older. What I do is just a mindful twist on a primal instinct.”
From balancing motorcycles and bricks to wine glasses and potted plants, Vaishnav constantly pushes the boundaries of what can be stabilized. The results are often surreal—and always temporary.
“You put your full attention into creating something beautiful,” he says, as he places a flat stone gently atop a pointed one. “And then you walk away. That’s the lesson—it’s all impermanent.”
With every workshop, Vaishnav isn’t just balancing stones. He’s balancing lives—offering people a quiet moment of focus in an otherwise chaotic world.
“Pick up a rock,” he says. “Try to balance it. For those few minutes, you’ll forget everything else. That’s the real art.”
From Code to Calm: Gautam Vaishnav’s journey from software engineer to rock-balancing mentor proves that sometimes, the heaviest burdens are lifted by simply standing still.
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