Sangli man carves 96 Ganesh idols this year after a schoolgirl's request

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Narendra Damle of Sangli has prepared for this year's Ganeshotsav a little differently. He has hand-crafted as many as 96 Ganesh idols himself. But the journey began with a small incident during the difficult days of the lockdown.

Damle says his shop stayed shut through the lockdown, his income stopped, and he suffered heavy losses; even books at home were sold as scrap. He was mulling over what to do when a neighbour's daughter, who studied at an English-medium school, needed a Ganesh idol for school. She asked him, \"Uncle, do you know how to make one? I don't know how.\" That simple question changed the course of his life.

Damle says he had never made a Ganesh idol before. As a child he used to make figures of Nagoba, bulls and forts, but Ganesh was his first such attempt. Since he had an interest in drawing and sketching, he already had a sense of body proportions, the head and the hands. Using that skill he made his first idol, and it turned out very well. That idol marked the true start of his artistic journey.

Since everyone liked the first idol, the family decided from the next year to install one made at home. The numbers grew every year after that: one idol in the first year, 32 in the second, then 45, then 72, and this year as many as 96. He does all the work himself, with family members helping only with painting and other small tasks.

Damle's Ganesh work is not limited to the festival days alone. About a month after Ganeshotsav ends, he begins work for the next year's idols on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra. As a result, his workshop runs for nearly 11 months of the year.

He also makes the moulds for his idols himself. A one-foot Ganesh mould bought from the market costs around Rs 4,500, but he says a mould alone does not complete an idol. The mould only shapes the body of the idol; the hands, trunk, crown and other details have to be done by hand by the artist.

Damle does not see this work merely as a source of income. His view is that one should nurture the art, serve Ganesh through it, and take remuneration for the work. However, he says clearly that running the entire household on this alone is not easy, for that everyone in the family would need to learn the craft and the number of idols would need to grow further. Earlier he made idols while also running his shop, but he has now decided to shut the shop completely and devote himself full-time to idol-making from next year.

Damle says that after nearly 45-46 years, he has worked with clay again. As a child he used to make forts for children, but he had never made a Ganesh idol. He says that small attempt during the lockdown has brought him to where he is today. A journey that began with one schoolgirl's Ganesh idol now stands in the form of 96 idols of the deity.