Ganesha-makers

With the Ganesha festival in sight, everyone is getting ready with the preparations for the festival. Households are getting their supplies ready, people going home are getting their bags ready, those celebrating in their homes are getting ready to receive guests and those not celebrating are getting ready to watch others celebrate. Members of this family in Mangalore, India, however,  are making a different kind of last-minute preparations. And that is, preparing the last step of the idol-making process-- painting the eye of Ganesha.

Painting the eye may seem to be a trivial aspect of the process of making an idol, but apparently this step constitutes the all-important aspect of "imparting sight" to the idol. This renders the idol ready for dispatch. However,  what really makes the idol ready for worship is the adorning of the ornaments and finally the tying of the yajnopavita (the sacred thread tied diagonally from the left shoulder to the right waist) which is done at the site of worship.

The family members preparing these idols for dispatch have been working on Ganesha orders for the past month and a half. The 186 clay dolls of  ganesha seem to be an army of ganeshas stationed in every room of the house arrayed in neat rows. They all seem alike at a glance, but on closer inspection, we notice differences in head dress and sitting positions. Some have a turban on their heads, others have crowns and several others have glittering head dresses. Some are seated in the lotus-pose (padmasana) on the base, others are seated on stools with either both feet resting on the ground, or only one on the ground and the other folded and placed next to the other thigh. What is common to all of them is the material -- they are all made up of clay and painted with lead-based paints. A family operation for the past 75 years, this art could use eco-friendly paints and colors.

On inquiring about the price of the idols, they say " how can we set a price tag to God? People pay us what they feel the idol deserves and that is sufficient". Let us treasure these unsung craftsmen who add color to the festive season.

Treasured little gizmo

On a recent trip to London, I faced with the following situation.
I had an important document submission pending and I was hoping to return from my trip and submit it. With the remote possibility of my working on it during my trip, I decided to upload the document and the associated files on a USB flash drive and carry it with me.

The day before I was to return, there was a news flash saying that all flights out of the UK were grounded indefinitely. This meant several things to me. One, that I was going to be in London for a while. Two, I would not be able to return home in time to work on my submission. Three, I would have to work on my document right away. With one message conveying several senses about my current status, I decided to get into action and turned to my laptop. As I turned it on, I was not greeted by the usual desktop adorned with all the paraphernalia in it. On the contrary, she failed to boot. For an instance, I had the faint feeling of sinking into a bottomless pit. But I managed to come out of it very quickly thanks to the USB flash drive that was snugly ensconced in my bag.

I was attending a conference and there were computers for use by the delegates. When I was not at a session (say during a lunch break) I decided to put the spare time to good use and began working on my document. I had the necessary files, alright. But what about the program `Latex' that I needed to use to compile my document into its final form? The local computers did not have it, obviously, and having no administrative privileges, there was no way in which I could install it locally. After some googling around, I found out that I would be able to compile my document on an online portal- Scribtex.com for free. Thanks to its intuitive user-interface I got started on the compilation and after several editions, my document was done.

Viva el USB Flash drive and viva Scribtex...

Need I say more on the little gizmo that I will treasure for some time to come? This important task of mine would not have been accomplished, but for these little treasures.