Puducherry, September 8, 2013: “If the rain stops on Sunday, we will have a Vinayaka Chathurthi, otherwise the rain will wash away our festival along with the mud for the idols,” 60-year-old idol maker Sarasu lamented. She points to a pile of mud on the roadside that has been covered in tarpaulin sheets and sacks. Despite being covered, rivulets of clay-coloured water run into the drain on the side of the road.

In the past two days, with the heavy rain, a significant amount of clay has been lost. Every time it rains, a little more mud washes away. It is this mud that is used make the Vinayaga idols that are later immersed in the water. Even before the idols are shaped out of the clay, if the clay dissolves, there is nothing that can be done.

For most of these people, their only livelihood is in the 10 days before Vinayaka Chathurthi when they come from around Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to make idols on the side of Kosakadai Street.

It is only the money that they take back from the sales that ensures that these people are able to celebrate the function in their homes and entire families migrate to Puducherry to sleep on the roadside and make idols.

With the unexpected showers, it is possible that most of them will go back without even recovering the money they spent on the clay, she said.

Since most of the idol makers come from distant towns and sit on the side of the road in whatever little space they can find, it is only a lucky few that are able to keep the mud covered. The rest of them store their clay in little mounds on the side of the street. When the rains started pouring, the only thing they could do was hurriedly cover the mounds with whatever materials they could find. Unfortunately, that did not provide much cover, Yasodha, another idol maker from Tindivanam, said.

After the rains started two days ago, the production of idols has almost stopped. Those who have found cover have saved the idols they have made, but they are unable to make their idols at the same speed, since the mud needs to dry completely before they can proceed to decorate the idols.

Unfortunately without the sun, it takes much longer for the clay to dry, so at a time when they should be making around 10 to 15 large idols in a day, these artisans are able to only produce one or two, Ganapathy from Marakkanam explains.

The clay that these vendors obtain comes from different areas on the Shankarabharani river bed including Arumparthapuram, Villianur and Thirukannur.

Once they get the mud, usually one tractor-load of clay, they have to prepare it till it reaches the right consistency. With the rains, the consistency of the mixture changes and so they will have to wait until the clay dries before they can do anything with the mud. If it is too runny, they will not be able to mould it.

If the sun comes out, on Sunday the production of these handmade idols will start at full speed, but even then, most of the vendors say they will fall short of their annual production, which means many people could go away without a Vinayaka idol for their homes this year.

Source: The Hindu, September 8, 2013