Natural Celebration

The students participate in activities organised by the National Green Corporation,a project of the central government which engages schools in activities to promote the preservation of the environment through programmes like plantation of trees,safe disposal of waste and more. The students will be following a three-part programme which commences a month before the Ganesh festival. The first part is to make clay idols of Ganesh,the second is to visit Ganesh mandals around their localities and inform them about the pollution caused by excessive use of fire crackers,control of sound pollution and measures they should take for the appropriate disposal of waste; and the third part of the programme is for each student to collect flowers,dhruva and other materials used during the puja that need to be disposed off,from ten households near their locality.

Students knead clay with water and spades on the terrace of the school building. “Making the clay dough is a tedious and time consuming effort. To skip this trouble,most people make idols of plaster of paris,which is easier to mix with water but causes water pollution as it does not dissolve in water for a long time. Thirty-five kgs of clay is bought from Mangalwar Peth to make the murtis ,” informs Raghunath Ramadhavan,teacher-in-charge of the programme. Moulds are provided to the students in which they sprinkle sanjera powder,to prevent the clay from sticking to the mould. Bits of clay dough are then pressed on the moulds,which is later filled with a heap of dough and left to solidify. After two days,the moulds are taken off and white paint is applied to the idol making it ready to be coloured with vegetable paints.

“I make the hands of the Ganesh idol. We have different moulds for it. Once the finishing is done with a corni ,I make holes on the parts of the hands to be connected to the body with the divider,and then I fix it on to the idol,” describes Shubham Santosh,student of Std IX. Even though these children are not professional sculptors,the effort they invest in this craft is impressive. “The best part about the whole process is painting the idol. We will be using non-toxic vegetable dye to paint the idols. I am going to make my murti very bright and colourful,” smiles Ashwini Mahadev Gapat,student of Std VIII.