MERRY CHRISTMAS 2013
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| Mother Mary & Baby Jesus on Christmas Day 2013! |
Merry Christmas!
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| Up the hill |
I was quite thrilled when Vinny suggested that we go to visit Mount Mary on Christmas this year. While I have been to that area a number of times and even went to the church once, it has always been in the night. So, I was quite happy to go there in the daylight.
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| Candles sold outside the church |
We got off the rickshaw opposite Mehboob Studio and walked up the sloping road. The weather was awesome and the walk quite scenic. We went down a couple of by-lanes, taking our time reaching the church at around 1.30 pm.
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| Vinny checks out the wares on sale |
The church was packed with a number of people spilling into the compound too. Most of them were obviously not Christians, same as us. We both walked inside to sit on a pew. After praying for a few minutes, I got up to walk to the altar. Mother Mary and Baby Jesus wore diamond crowns to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. They looked beautiful.
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| Mount Mary Church in the afternoon sunlight |
After praying there, I walked out from the right side where a crib had been set up. It looked lovely. I waited on another pew while Vinny completed her prayers and then the two of us left from the opposite door.
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| The crib |
We walked down the hill from the other end and went to Taj Lands End where Christmas Carols had been organised in the main hall. Children from a nearby school were celebrating the birth of Jesus by singing carols.
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| The scenic walk downhill |
We sat there to listen to “Jingle Bells” (my favourite) and “Silent Night”. It was lovely to hear their young, sweet voices. We left after having a glass of fruit juice served by the hotel.
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| Christmas Carols at Taj Lands End |
It was a wonderful Christmas for me as we went on to buy a takeaway lunch at BusaGo in Bandra before going home to share it with Venkat and Viggy.
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Cute stuffed Santa Claus at the Festivity Desk at Taj Lands End
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One of the 4 pretty Christmas trees in the lobby of Taj Lands End!
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BRING LORD GANESHA HOME
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| Lord Ganesha! |
Happy Birthday to you Ganpati Bappa! I simply love you! Wishing every one of my readers a very happy Ganesh Chaturthi!
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| Ganesha Idols made from clay at a village (Pic courtesy: Nilesh Mhatre) |
Ganesha is the elephant-headed God who is so loveable and cuddly that all of us want to befriend. This festival is celebrated with pomp and ceremony by all of us, Mumbaikars, most especially. On this beautiful occasion, I bring to you a blog on how the Ganesh idols are made and brought to the markets in Mumbai city. I have taken the information and pictures from a barracks-like stall at Dharavi for the same.
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| Work on Ganesha idols heats up in the village (Pic courtesy: Nilesh Mhatre) |
As you walk from Sion station to Dharavi, you will find this stall on the right across the 90-feet Road that is on the left. The shop has no name or anything for specific identification. The primary thing is that you find a number of Ganesh murtis in various shapes and sizes in different stages of creation.
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| I was lucky to get these close-up shots |
I met Raj from Ahmadnagar, a painter. I am not sure whether Raj should be called an artist or a painter. He does have the skill to turn out handsome hand-painted idols, but I mainly saw him wielding a spray gun while painting them. Luckily for me, Raj was quite willing to give me a lot of details of how the show goes on there. Raj asked me for a favour - their official photographer had not turned up, yet. He asked me whether I could give him copies of the photos on a CD. I was thrilled as he was ready to remove dust-covers from completed idols to make it possible for me to click away. Lucky me! You will find more pics on
Rising Sun over the next 10 days.
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| That's Raj working on a Ganesh Murti |
About 25 painters come down in a group from Ahmadnagar every year, about 2-3 months before Ganesh Chaturthi, to work with the same manufacturer, year after year. This is just one group. There are hundreds such coming down to Mumbai. This particular group works at the stalls in Dharavi, Andheri, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Kandivli.
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| A worker putting finishing touches to a clay idol (Pic courtesy: Nilesh Mhatre) |
The idols all come ready made from many parts of Maharashtra – Pen, Ahmadnagar, Ambeghar, Shirki and some others. Some are made from readymade moulds while others are created by hand. Sometimes, the murtis are created with a mould and embellishments are later added by hand. Murtis are made of clay as well as plaster of paris. The ones in this particular stall were all made of the latter. Most of the small ones – one foot and less – are painted at the villages. The larger ones are brought in the raw state to be painted right here in the stalls to avoid damage.
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| POP Ganeshas waiting to be coloured at Dharavi |
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| An idol partly painted |
The shop that is set up here includes 10 barracks, each measuring 30’x10’. They pay a rent of Rs. 35,000 per barrack per month. That’s big money indeed! This is just the set up at Dharavi under one particular manufacturer. While the shop comes into existence 2 months before Ganesh Chaturthi, it continues to hold good for the upcoming Navaratri festival when there is demand for idols of Devi.
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| The gorgeous hand-painted Ganesh with tones of Lord Krishna |
Raj takes about a couple of hours to paint a murti that is 4’ in height. This is just for spray painting. If there is a lot of hand painting involved, he takes another hour more. Spray painting is used most of the time as this works out cheaper. Hand-painting is done only on specific orders as these come very expensive.
The idols, especially the bigger ones, are booked by customers before they are painted. In fact, the buyers can choose the colours they want their Lord painted in.
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| Sold! |
A 4-foot murti made of POP costs between Rs. 300-400 when it is brought down in the raw state. Raj is paid Rs. 2000-3000 for the painting job. The cost of raw-materials is separate. The completed version of a hand-painted 4-foot idol is sold for about Rs. 35,000. Raj makes about Rs. 80000-90000 per Ganpati season. What he makes during Navratri is separate. The smallest and cheapest murti at the stall costs Rs. 200. The biggest murtis that come to their stall are as much as 12’ in height when I went to check the idols out. Raj said that bigger ones may turn up if there was demand.
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| Awaiting sale! |
You might have noticed by now that all costs are given in a range. Well, that’s how it is, as costing is pretty flexible if you know how to deal with it.
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| I found this idol of Lord Krishna there. For Janmashtami, I presume |
The costing ebbs and flows as per demand and the time when the customer lands up at the stall. Bargaining is possible as they are keen to sell away all their goods. But if the demand is more, then you might have to go away disappointed if you leave the purchase till the last minute.
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| I am sure all of these must be taken by now |
The last I read up on the internet, a large number of idols were destroyed during the recent rains, creating a huge loss to the industry as a whole. I sincerely pray to Lord Vignaharta (the one who destroys our problems) to take care of everyone involved.
JOURNEY OF THE GARBA PART - 1
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| The Garba |
Well, this is
Navratri time and I bring to my readers the story about a Garba Pot’s journey.
This real story is about a family of potters from Kumbarwada at Dharavi Labour Camp. Kanji is a potter by profession and lives in Kumbarwada with his wife Tina and four children – Dharmesh, Neha, Payal and Manthan.
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| Kanji, Tina and their kids |
While he is an expert potter, Kanji has no facilities of his own and everything is used on rent. He works for 4-5 hours in a day while making 200 to 250 pieces. Not that he works everyday as he is not in the best of health.
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| Clay all set to be moulded |
Tina is a terrific worker who packs a huge number of hours in her day. She works at my home as a cook in the mornings while she does work at other places too. Her afternoons and late evenings are spent getting the Garba ready for Navratri.
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| Kanji at work |
Their work began three months ago. Clay is brought from wholesalers by the truck. The cost varies from Rs. 2000 to 2500 from time to time. It needs to be cleaned up thoroughly and mixed into a smooth paste.
Kanji rents an electric wheel (a day’s rent is Rs 150) and manages to make about 300 pots on a given day. The pots are dried in shade for a couple of days till they become firm. The round-bottomed pots are softly tapped into the right shape for the garba and then holes are made. There is no particular number of holes on these. They just use their discretion. What they need to ensure is that the pots don’t break when they work on them and also the holes should be very neat without any residual clay in-between.
Again these pots are left to dry in the sun over 3-4 days. They hope to have strong sunlight on the morning the pots are baked in the kiln.
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| Drying pots |
All the work is done by the whole family and a few neighbours. The whole community gets together to work on each other’s projects. About 10-12 people work as one to stack the pots in the kiln and the process takes about half an hour. We are talking about 300 pots that are not quite dry yet.
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| The kiln, bhatti or choola |
The kiln belongs to their neighbour Jaggubhai who generally rents it out between Rs 150 and 250 depending on the season. But Kanji is a good neighbour and friend and therefore gets to use it for free.
A thick layer of cotton is made inside the kiln. Then bricks are laid in a square and a thin sheet of metal (patra) is laid over this. The pots – 300 of them – are stacked over this layer after layer. Another layer of metal is placed over this and that is covered by the more cotton. They place a few more sheets of metal all around to generate heat evenly.
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| The pot is ready for Stage II |
Cotton balls are lit and placed all around the kiln around the packed pots with more at the mouth of the kiln. The kiln, bhatti or choola gets ready over the next couple of hours, the rest of the cotton slowly catching fire. This happens from 2 to 4 pm.
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| Manthan's handiwork |
Then the oil rags are fed into the kiln in stages to keep the heat going. Iron rods are used to push the rags inside. This is from 4 to 10 pm when an even heat is maintained while the pots bake. One can imagine the kind of heat that is produced here. After 10 o’clock, the fire is allowed to cool down and fizzle out.
The pots are not touched until the next morning and then too they are handled only with denim gloves are they are still hot to the touch. The kiln is shared by a few families and is emptied if someone else needs it urgently. Otherwise, they take the whole day to remove the pots in a leisurely fashion.
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| Dharmesh |
Stage II of the Garba is the decoration. The baked pots are cooled and then washed thoroughly. They are dried both inside and outside their home as there are so many of them.
Day 2 sees the pots painted white. Chunna (lime) and gond (an edible substance used while making laddus) are mixed with water and made into a whitewash and the pots are coated with this. Tina and her four kids do this work in harmony. The best part is that Tina is very adamant that all her children are to be educated. Dharmesh is in FYJC, Neha in Std IX and other two are also in school. They study well too.
Day 3 is to use oil paint on the white coat. Red is the colour that holds best and is timeless. Other colours such as green, yellow, blue and more are also used. The pots are kept aside after this for drying yet again.
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| Tina and her creation |
Day 4 is for sticking design on the pots. Mother and children work on this too. Tina uses her own imagination to make the designs. She uses neither a pre-sketched design nor a tracing paper. Everything is done freehand. They use pearl beads, zari threads, ropes, mirrors, chamki and more to stick on the pots. The overall effect needs to be seen to be believed. Tina gets the raw material for the designs from Surat where her sister lives. She uses about Rs. 3000 worth of these materials for the 700 pots she has decorated this season.
Then comes the final touch on Day 5. Tina prepares cones – similar to mehendi cones – and fills them with colour and a quick and strong fix gum. She gives the final touches to the decorated Garbas with these colours. This gets set in about an hour. Now the Garba is ready for sale.
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| Going to the market |
Tina and family have already sold about 300 decorated pots in different sizes from home for a total cost of Rs 15000. They have about 400 pots packed away for sale during Navratri. While she has been working into the wee hours of the night over the past week, not once have I heard the little lady complain nor has she asked for a day off.
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| Going to the fair |
The ever-grinning Tina and her gang are to set off to the fair at Kathiawadi Chowk at Malad for the grand Navratra market. All the hard work has not fazed them one bit. What I admire most about this family is that the determined lady of the house ensures that the kids study, they don’t do any labour outside home while what work they do at home is so creative that it holds this family so well together. I sincerely pray that they sell all the pots that they have made for excellent prices. The prices do tend to ebb and flow and don’t remain very steady.
I will bring you this story in
Part II of this series.
JOURNEY OF THE GARBA PART - 2
….to continue from
Part I
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| Kathiawadi Chowk |
One would be surprised to see the area that could pass off for a village but for the busy highway and some tall buildings. It was a combo of urban and rural in typical Mumbai-ishtyle.
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| Malad East - Village or City? |
Well, those were scenes from the cute little village fair at Kathiawadi Chowk. I am glad to mention that while Tina and her family worked hard till 10 pm, they did manage to sell around 330 Garbas that day and she was left with a margin of about 10% unsold during this season.
Right now, Tina does not have any time to stand and stare. She is busy getting the Diyas ready for Diwali! Long live Tina and her family!
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