HYDERABAD: At Emerald Sweet Shop, Banjara Hills you don’t just see tubs of sweet rasgullas and packets of banana chips. You find tiny Ganeshas in clay waiting for you to take them home. Guess what? Other than being friends of the environment they come for a price as low as `10! Yes, that’s true. The best part is that the proceeds go to the charity box kept on the counter. And in the several pockets of the city people are not just embracing these eco-friendly idols, they are also circulating the idea among the community both by word of mouth and social media complete with the catchy hashtags.
For author-remedial therapist Seetha Anand Vaidyam, making clay idols at home is part of family activity now. She lived in Chennai for years where Ganesh Puja doesn’t bring the rush of brightly painted idols in the community pandals and homes vying with one another as to whose deity is more colourful, synthetic in that case! Ganesh Puja in Hyderabad was quite an experience for her, “I was baffled to see so much of competition to bring the brightest or the tallest god in the neighbourhood. That’s when I started creating my own Ganesha from clay.” She has been promoting it using hashtags like #MeraGaneshMittiGanesh #MyGaneshClayGanesh #SayNoToHarmfulIdols and #VisarjanAtHome.
The Ganeshas that she has been creating are small and can be put in a pot which makes it easier for her to do the Nimmajjan. She adds, “Later we use the muddy liquid to water the plants. You do your puja also and make the deity forever a part of your garden.” She laments that earlier guruvinja seeds were used to make eyes of the god and the 21 herbs that were offered to the deity are now all thrown away, instead of recognising its medicinal value. “God is in us. We don’t need to pollute water to worship Him. Will he be happy if we pollute what he has created?” she asks.
It’s not just a simple clay Ganesha that people have brought home, some of them have even got the idol with plant seeds within. Shares Radhika Anjaneyulu, a homemaker living in Himayath Nagar, “For the past few years, I am getting the deity of clay with seeds of hibiscus or tulasi infused inside. After the nimajjan at my rooftop garden, I get happy to see the sapling grow.”
Floral or medicinal plants, seeds of fenugreek or spinach are also put inside the idol. Informs Narayan K Murthy of Goodseeds, an organic shop in Jubilee Hills, “We work with multiple artisans for the clay Ganeshas. Seeds of spinach or fenugreek are put inside them. Other than that we also give a small bag of plant seeds.”
These idols are priced `250 and come in bio-degradable bags. It’s interesting to see the Gods painted with natural hues created with vegetables and flowers. Sums up Dr Sharda Angrau, a natural dye specialist, who works closely with artisans of naturally dyed Ganeshas, “We take the colour from flowers, barks and seeds of plants like marigold, moduga, arjun tree, jackfruit, copper-pod tree etc.” Because of the tedious process of the colour making the cost goes high. But the city seems to be waking up to welcome the god in his clay avatar with a promise to stay much longer in form of a plant.