Ganapati Karkhana
"The only thing I missed during my 3 years in Delhi was the Ganesh Festival of Mumbai. It’s magical here during Ganesh Chaturthi! I really can’t explain the vibrant and exciting atmosphere here right now. It’s brighter than Diwali , more colorful than Holi , streets don a glamorous look with decorated pandals in every neighborhood.
The Ganpati Aagman has already begun and it would continue all day long.
I just came back from my old friend Siddharth’s eco-friendly Ganesh idol workshop after the last bappa idol found its way to a devotee’s home.
Siddharth is an incredible artist! I and Sid did schooling and junior college together. He makes various clay idols and sculptures which look so surreal as if they are filled with life. He focuses on a great amount of detail while making them. He would complete his Graduation in Sculptures this year and has a diploma in Fine Arts.
Sid would have been an engineer today, probably writing Java/ Python codes or fixing some green chips and not making these awesome sculptures , paintings, and designs if he didn’t had followed his passion.
After completing 12th, his family wanted him to pursue chemical engineering and made him appear JEE , AIEEE and what not, even he gave up at a certain point and believed his parents that engineering was a more “respectful” job than being an artist was. We use to meet after 12th boards and discussed what would be the ideal career path, I always told him, “leave what everyone else says, dude, it’s your life! Just believe in yourself and listen to your instinct.”
The Ganpati Aagman has already begun and it would continue all day long.
I just came back from my old friend Siddharth’s eco-friendly Ganesh idol workshop after the last bappa idol found its way to a devotee’s home.
Siddharth is an incredible artist! I and Sid did schooling and junior college together. He makes various clay idols and sculptures which look so surreal as if they are filled with life. He focuses on a great amount of detail while making them. He would complete his Graduation in Sculptures this year and has a diploma in Fine Arts.
Sid would have been an engineer today, probably writing Java/ Python codes or fixing some green chips and not making these awesome sculptures , paintings, and designs if he didn’t had followed his passion.
After completing 12th, his family wanted him to pursue chemical engineering and made him appear JEE , AIEEE and what not, even he gave up at a certain point and believed his parents that engineering was a more “respectful” job than being an artist was. We use to meet after 12th boards and discussed what would be the ideal career path, I always told him, “leave what everyone else says, dude, it’s your life! Just believe in yourself and listen to your instinct.”
Courtesy: Lord Ganesh Idol Making
I always encouraged him to follow his passion and gave fuel to his inner voice amidst an ocean of people around him from family , relatives, friends of family , neighbors , neighbors’s dog , relatives of relatives and also Sharma uncle reminding about his financial conditions at home and how engineering is the only key to success.
While I told him I can see his paintings selling in millions and him running a company and teaching kids at some university about ancient Indian art but not an engineer. ( I have always been this sleazy )
We then researched what is the scope in Fine Arts to gather some statistics to boost about during cold-debates with his family everytime i was at his place after entrance exams.
“Rahul , explain to mom what we read that day on the internet”
“yeah , yeah, aunty…fine arts has ….”
“He is doing engineering! We would select the branch once the results are declared”
:/ :/
And the D-Day arrived. the results were out. Well, ranks and numbers do not really matter in this case but unfortunately or I’d say rather fortunately his “caste certificate” wasn’t issued on time by the court and he couldn’t secure his admission.
But he was genuinely talented and I was genuinely a salesman. Four years ago I sold him the idea of starting up a “ganpati-karkhana” to use his talents in making eco-friendly clay idols to start earning. He too wanted to start and just needed some motivation, I was in Delhi when he called me and in an excited voice told me how he sold his first idol and started the karkhana from his house’s front yard. He said he missed my presence and that helping hand.
Cut to 2016, Siddharth is a skilled sculptor who has worked with some of the biggest sarvajanik Ganesh mandals of Mumbai. He was pre-booked for 2 whole months for his craftsmanship and has a small workshop where he sells custom made eco-friendly idols.
Today I was at his workshop where I helped him in giving final touches to some unfinished idols. There are close to 1 million household that bring Ganesh idols home in Mumbai & MMR and there is a 150% rise in demand for eco-friendly ganesh idols. We were just thinking, how about starting up an ecommerce store of eco-friendly Ganesh idols and ship globally! Who knows what Bappa wants from us as we synergize."
Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!!
Courtesy: Medium.com
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