A 35-year-old COVID-19 warrior from southern India's Kerala has gone the extra mile to make sure his children get the best of the toys to play with, by building them himself.

A staff nurse at Idukki District Hospital, Arun Kumar Purushothaman builds fully-functional miniature toy cars that can run on batteries.

In January 2020, he built a fully-functional miniature Jeep Willys for a 10-year-old leukaemia survivor.

Growing up in Idduki district, Arun was fascinated by toys and automobiles.

Hailing from a family of carpenters, he learnt the fine art of carpentry at a very young age.

"When I was a small child, I used to ask my parents for toys, but they couldn't afford it. I remember, they got me an old tricycle from the junkyard. Made of three wooden wheels and fitted them to the cycle when I was around seven-years-old. Every evening I would ride it and probably that inspired me to be who I am today," he told Newslions Media Network.

Arun started building pieces of furniture when he was in the seventh standard.

He used to sell them and earn a surplus living for his family.

"In the tenth standard, when I was 15 years old, I won a state medal for building a miniature excavator. I had aspired to become an automobile engineer. I was relatively good in studies and secured good grades in science and maths for the high school examination," he said.

However, things went south for him when his family could not afford education further, thereby stalling his dreams of becoming an engineer.

"I got free admission in a nursing college for my good grades, and I became a nurse. Even when I was studying nursing, I used to make pieces of furniture. While my ongoing nursing class, I finished an entire kitchen cupboard for my client," he said, followed by a brief laugh.

Purushothaman made his first fully-functional miniature toy car, a jeep, for his son, Madhav Krishna, in January 2019.

"My son wanted to buy a toy car. It was listed at Rs 17,000 (USD 227). Being too expensive, I thought I will make one myself. I finished the final model of an auto-rickshaw in three months and gifted it to my son on his birthday," he said.

Following this, he made a battery-operated tricycle for his daughter Keshini Krishna.

"The mini auto model is a replica of the auto, featured in a peppy song from the famous 1990 'Aye Auto'; even the number plate is the same," said Arunkumar, a die-hard fan of Malayalam actor Mohanlal.

The art of toymaking started gaining him popularity slowly.

Arun decided to make a replica of the Jeep Willys after seeing Mohanlal driving one in the movie Lucifer. He made it for Amruthesh, a leukaemia survivor.  

"Being a nurse, I could not ask for any money from his family. I posted on Facebook, asking for people to help me financially. Few of my friends came together and crowdfunded the project," he added.

He finished the project within seven months in January 2020.

Arun used an analogue console unit from a Royal Enfield motorcycle to be used in the operational toy.

The toy is also equipped with metal plates from a real jeep to enhance its suspension mechanism.

The operational toy runs on a 24V DC motor and weighs around 75 kilograms (165 lbs).

The jeep can carry twice its weight and run for about four hours on a complete charge.

The miniature jeep has forward, neutral and reverse gears.

To make the jeep appear more realistic, it is equipped with a toolbox, headlamps, indicators, wipers, horn, a USB charging port and a first-aid box.

"I got a lot of recognition on social media for the jeep. Anand Mahindra, the Mahindra Group Chairman, tweeted about it appreciating my efforts. I got in touch with one of their CEOs who showed interest in working with me for making India-made toys and selling them," he sounded exhilarated.

Arun is currently on COVID-19 duty, tending to coronavirus patients while slowly making plans for a business he wants to commence upon.

"I want to start a small-scale business of making miniature toy cars. That would build a market for toy cars in India and stop all imports. However, I need several investors for that. Currently, I am planning to work on a full-size four-wheeler battery-operated vehicle for my personal use. Petrol prices are increasing every day," he said, ending on a funny note.