Ganesh Chaturthi festival is less than a month away now. It is a widely celebrated festival in India marked with great pomp and zeal, especially in Maharashtra and the Southern states of the country. This year, the celebrations will begin on September 19 (Tuesday) and the Ganesh Visarjan will be held on September 28.
The 10-day-long festival marks the worship of Lord Ganesha and his blessings bring wisdom, prosperity and good fortune to his devotees. The festival will begin on the Shukla Paksha Chaturthi of the Hindu month of Bhadrapada. The pandals have already been set up at many places and the idols of Lord Ganesha are being sculpted on a wide scale across the country.
During the celebrations, we often come across stories of communal harmony. This idol-making shop in Karnataka’s Hubli has gained attention lately. In a shop in the Gopanakoppa area, a Muslim woman named Suman Haveri has been making idols of Lord Ganesha. She has been sculpting the idols for 15 years now and her handwork is quite popular among the locals. Suman works at the shop owned by Arun Yadav who has been in the business for over a decade now. The shop is now looked after by his son Anup Yadav and his wife Nirupama Murthy.
Suman got the job at the shop four years ago due to bad economic conditions in her family. She is an expert in decorating and giving the final touches to the idols before they are sold to the customers.
Niruparna Murthy told News18 that they are not biased on the basis of the artist’s caste or religion when it comes to work. She also mentioned that they sculpt idols that are one foot to eight feet tall.
After the government banned the usage of Plaster of Paris for sculpting idols, the shop owner transported soil from Porbandar, Gujarat. They also use light crack-proof paper to give the idols shapes and curves.
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