MUMBAI: Over 150 citizens, young and old, joined the Indian playback singer , Hema Sardesai, best known for her Hindi songs, to conduct an eco friendly Ganpati workshop with clay at Suvarna Mandir in Powai on Thursday.Hema Sardesai who has sung playback songs for over 60 Bollywood films, has released several successful Indipop albums, and has performed numerous live stage shows in almost all the states of India and world tours in different countries around the globe over the years.
Hema campaigned for eco festivals at Powai encouraging citizens to make the green change. Said Hema, “We must take the eco Ganpati message to all sectors of society. We all belong to Mother Earth. People will surely realize that we need to save our water bodies.” Hema Sardesaialso spontaneously belted out her hit song ‘Aawara Bhavaren’ to all the children present at the workshop.
Sandeep Gajakosh, from Prathmesh eco-friendly Ganapati workshop, held a stall of paper-mache idols, “We need to create more awareness. This year, we have made 150 idols using paper, white ink and gum. But today people are actually changing their mindset. Slowly but surely people will have faith in the co friendly idols,” said Sandeep.
It is vital that the underprivileged strata of society also get a chance to know of the green Ganesha, therefore today we reached out to the larger section of society ,those who do celebrate and need to know about going eco friendly too,” stated Elsie Gabriel, Founder Young Environmentalists who together with her team taught people to make eco idols out of clay.
Gabriel also expressed the need for artificial immersions to be conducted at Powai, “We must immerse our idols in an eco friendly manner too. Powai specially needs to have an artificial water tank on which we are working on in tandem with BMC to give us space near the area opposite the Powai lake.Next year for sure we shall be ready to go all green.”
Suman Basu of Indira Shaili Pratishthan gave the common murti walas a platform to exhibit their wares at the event, “It is also wise to promote our Murti walas who are making an effort to sustain the earth and their business by still making shadoo ganeshas.We applaud Pushpa Vidyasagar and Dilip Bhagwat for exhibiting beautiful green idols at our awareness campaigne. We also thanks Shree Shree Suvarna Baba for hosting the event and for his blessings on our campaigne at the mandir. It is rare that the house of God also reaches out to it’s people in times when planet Earth needs her the most.
Source: Vijay Singh, TNN http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
