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Online classes, idol kits for people to celebrate Ganesha festival at home
The measures are aimed at keeping people at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Coming forward to help people to celebrate the festival while being home, sculptors this year have come up with free online workshops to make ganpati idols at home and also delivered idol making traditional kits to people so that they do not have to step out amid the coronavirus pandemic and are able to celebrate the festival safely.
Thum Creative Paryavaran Dakshata Kruti Munch, a Pune-based agency, that has been working towards educating kids on the importance of celebrating festivals in an eco-friendly manner, sold kits for making the idols at home.
For the preparation of these kits, the agency roped in around 40 women who lost their jobs due the pandemic. The kit consists of 8.2 inches Ganesha idol mould, farm clay, three paint colours and a brush, a ready made clay modak with seeds. Not only this, the agency offered training videos for making the idols at home. Some 2,500 suck kits were sold by the agency in around a month.
Prashant Avachat, director of the agency, said, “Our agency works towards making the youngsters know the importance of celebrating festivals in a traditional manner. This is done by imparting knowledge to them in the form of logic and reason. However, due to the pandemic, we decided to supply these kits containing fresh clay picked up from the farms along with other required materials and make people self reliant. We followed all necessary precautions and sanitised the kits well before getting them delivered at people’s doorsteps.”
Mumbai’s Santacruz-based Rintu Rathod, inventor of chocolate Ganpati idol, conducted a free international online workshop on August 15. This workshop included tutorials for making chocolate and clay based idols at home and saw 2,400 participants from 45 countries. Rathod said, “For the first time, I had 900 registrations in just one day which assured that many people have attempted to make their own ‘bappa’ this time.”
Gauri Kekre, a baker by profession, conducted two online workshops with an aim to appeal to people to immerse their idols at home. A Thane resident, Kekre has been conducting hands-on classes for students every year but decided to conduct online tutorials for people due to the pandemic this year.
“By teaching people to make ganpati idols out of clay and chocolates, my aim was to ensure that more people don’t have to visit any crowded places for the immersion process,” she said.
