Ganpati Baba Morriya!!

Maharashtra’s most popular and famous Ganesha festival week is goin on. The gullies of Lalbaug, Parel, and Chinchpokli areas of Mumbai are crowded with workshops of Ganesha idols. Most of the small, medium size idols are wrapped in plastic sheets and are ready to be delivered to the customers. The big size idols are being given their finishing touches.

Most of the craftsmen come from the coastal, Konkan area of Maharashtra. It’s their traditional business. Earlier the idols were made of a special quality of soil, which rendered finer results, but it took many days to dry. These days most of the idols are made of Plaster of Paris (POP). It takes only a few days to dry. Making the mould of POP is easy, which can then be used for mass production.

Making idols from a soil is a costly and time consuming affair. The idols are immersed in the Arabian Sea after the festival and idols made of soil slowly melt in the water without polluting. The idols made of soil are finer and rich in colors.

On the contrary, idols made of POP are not easily disposable. On the next day of immersion ceremony, the ugly remains of the idols not only float in the water creating water pollution, they also disturb the spiritual importance of Lord Ganesha and the festival.