With only two days left for Ganpati festival to begin, all the Ganesh idol artists are busy giving their final touch in their art-workshop. Last friday i went to one of such workshop near my colony. Since last one week i was very curious to go there and check out the kinda work they are involved in. There were hundreds of idols ready to take home and ganesh pandaals.. Few of them posted here.. I spent a few mins talking to them about their work. These artists start their work 3 months before Ganesh festival. The person whom i met is Mr. Vishnu Mestry who has been conducting this Ganesh idol-workshop since 15 years. He was very happy to tell me all the info i needed and showed me few of his master pieces. There was one Ganesh-idol colored totally in dark orange color and he asked me to take a snap of this. I refuse since its eyes were yet to be painted.. But he said, "its my master piece, i will paint them after i finish my sundry work. This particular idol is very dear to me. So i wanna do it in my idle time, Fursat se!" and he winked. I could see his dedication towards the work and attachment he had with each of his babies... (idols).. Explaining a few idols he said, "One always have to be in the best of his mood, since our mood has a gr8 impact on the things we do and the way we do it. A small mistake in the color combination and shading off the idols may entirely change the look of the idol." He then got busy wd something, so i went to another co-worker who was so excited to give a pose along wd the ganesh idol he was giving finishing touch. "What kinda colors do u use to paint them?" Trying to help him out i added "meaning.. plastic distemper, oil paint??" He laughed aloud and said, "NAhi mitra, dye che colors waparto amhi!" (No friend! We use Dye colors). All those idols were made from plaster of paris(POP), which actually is not environment friendly. On asking about this he said, "Now-a-days, people choose POP idols over traditional idol made from mud since POP are lighter and even we have to do less efforts. Even if we make mud-idols, ppl ask them @ the cost of POP. POP idols are much cheaper!" I m posting few stils on my photoblog. please feel free to chk em out. The "atmo" is all set for this bigggieeeee event in Maharashtra. Thanks to our gr8 gr8 freedom fighter "Baal Gangadhar Tilak" he started this event to bring all the Indians together. As an addon this year is very special since Monday onwards our Muslim brothers are celebrating Ramzan! So its gonna be double fun. I wish all Muslim frnz "Happy Ramzan" and "Ganpati bappa Morya!" or say "Kaaybalbati molya" in dhruv's language. Well, Dhruv is kiddo of Raut kaka from Chinchwad where i used to go for my dinner when i was studying in Pune. Dhruv unable to pronounce Ganpati bappa morya used to say "Kaybalbatti molya" hehehe.. But his excitement while saying those words was double then ours. He is choo cute.. miss u Dhruva.. With all the excitement ready to come our way in just a period of 2 days, m very happy and ready to see my fav god come home soon...Ganpati Bappa Morya!!!!
or in Dhruva's language.. "Kaaybalbatti Molya"
