Earlier this month, the first weekend of September I chanced upon an old friend of mine from good old college days. I must confess – he was the one who recognized me. In my defense, he had put on a few kilos & when I gave him my excuse, he said, “Well, that didn’t stop me from recognizing you, now did it?” We broke into a roar of laughter to the amusement of the couple whose peace and space we had invaded with our rather loud reunion. Realizing which we both moved over to my table where I was originally waiting for my gang of friends.
It was while I was waiting for my friends and caught up with my old buddy that he related a recent experience of his with me. Something that yet again proved to me that certain changes can sometimes be driven by an individual’s resolve just as well as when driven by a collective initiative.
My friend was in the outskirts near Dhoolpet sometime back, on his annual trip there to bring home Lord Ganesha’s idol for his building’s Ganesh Chathurthi celebrations with some of his neighbors. After some looking around they finally found a majestic idol, nearly 12 feet high which they were confident would sit royally on the temporary stage they would set up for the 11 day celebrations. As his neighbors haggled with the stall owner, my friend wandered to checkout a few more stalls.
A few stalls away, he saw a kid, not more than 13-14 years of age skillfully crafting, molding and then giving finishing touches to a small (around 1 feet) idol of lord Ganesha. Impressed with the kid’s intricate art but curious about something, he asked, “Why are you wasting time on the small idols, while the big ones will fetch you more money?”. The kid replied, “This one is not for sale, Sir. It’s for me”. My friend pressed, “Why don’t you use one of the unsold ones for yourself?”.
Now looking at him straight, the kid replied, “All those 50-100 feet ones are for you sir, made of plaster and painted with colors. My teacher says, the paint kills the fishes in the sea & Hussain Sagar where we’ll leave the idol in some days”.
My friend was dumbstruck for a few seconds. Not because he had heard something he didn’t know. But because he heard it where he least expected, from a person he least expected from & most importantly he saw it being practiced. He asked one final time, “If it’s for you, why are you making a small one?” the kid replied, “ I wanted to make a 1o feet one, but this is all the clay my dad would spare, barely enough for the base. I had to dig the rest from that house’s backyard (he pointed to a house over my friend’ s shoulder). I got caught and had to pay Rs 40/-.”
“How much would a 10 feet idol cost?”, my friend enquired. “A lot, around Rs 400 maybe. Don’t know.”
“Here’s Rs 500, give me this one & make yourself a bigger one, will you?”.
The kid smiled for the first time & said, “Thank you”.
“No, Thank YOU” said my friend as he exchanged money for the idol & a lesson.
