Two days left for the grand festival of India, Ganesh Chaturthi and wherever those worship lord Ganesh. It was Bal Gangadhar Tilak who brought nationalism with religious, it not only gathered people to celebrate the festival by keeping ganesh idols in public place, but also inspired for the freedom fights against British. In tradition it was celebrated individually by making a clay or mud ganesh idol and submerges it somewhere in lakes, ponds and oceans after ending the working. As we celebrate, its time to think about the damage we create for other lives that share our world. It would wish us to buy a colorful idol instead of the usual clay made that kept on our street sides and sculpture shops, but before going on we have to know the chemical paints that gives a beautiful look would mess our water bodies and environment when it was dipped .However some idols kept at the street corners and temples have been made of Plaster of Paris. It’s not a natural element that we get from… when it immerse it gradually increases the acid content of the water and if it’s a painted idols it release the lead, mercury what was harm to water livings. According to Wikipedia “the danger of this was illustrated in January 2007, when a sixteen year-old girl suffered third-degree burns after encasing her hands in plaster as part of a school art project in Lincolnshire, England. She subsequently had her thumbs and most of her fingers amputated.” To avoid the change and for a festival without harming any other we must follow the rule of sending the material from where it took.
To avoid facing the challenges, it’s not wrong in changing our Patten. Simple solution that could be useful as well eco-friendly is recycling the same idols esp. made of plaster to the following years or give away the Idols to those who use for others festivals. It’s visible for years, few days along with Ganesh Chaturthi the shores of beaches and water bodies looks bad in conditions, were the remain things that couldn’t dissolve give way to shore. Another idea that present often is dip the clay idol in the water filled tub and pore in the earth where it belongs. Hope we all follow and would continues the process without any harm for our environment.
5 comments:
actually this one festival not celebrated in grand scale in Malaysia. we do have special prayers at home and temples. but thats about it.
ammu.
Jeevan,
SUPER post! I do not have words to appreciate a young man like you, who is inside a room most of the day, but having so much of consciousness on the earth and ecology. Well done Jeevan! I think people like you should be honoured for your noble thoughts. Carry on your wonderful work. Why can't you send this post to leading newspapers in Chennai? In your free time talk to young kids and make them think Jeevan. Atleast, we shall try to bring a different generation.
Yeah, I agree with you. Eco-friendliness should be promoted as much as possible as the ill-effects of toxic chemicals used in different things in the festivals are immense, so we should try to safeguard from them as much as possible.
Ammu – we too finish it with in our self, but would share the sweets to our dears and near ones.
Balaji – Thanks for the encouraging words dear. I was trying to come with a neat work on some topics to send in local newspapers. I wish to share my thoughts with young’s, but who is coming to spend with me, I love to be with kids, they are away from me. I notice my cousins sometimes try to catch my words, but how far they are following is doubt.
Kalyan – you are right buddy! We need to adjust with the world as it changes. Thanks :)
Nice post Jeevan...
Gud explanations about the way of dissolving mud ganesh idol...
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