A profession perchance
MALATHI RANGARAJAN
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T.P.R. Ganesh makes idols, but how it all began is interesting.
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VISION REALISED: T.P.R. Ganesh Iyer.
Never an artist in the strict sense of the word, the young man was nonplussed when a gentleman walked up to him one day and asked him to make a miniature of Raghavendra Swami. The young man did not even know who Raghavendra was, let alone making a figurine of him. As if in a trance he accepted the advance of Rs.500.
Guilt gripped him as he had taken money for a job he knew nothing about. Then suddenly one night he began carving from some waste material available at home. He was working on it feverishly without food or water till the next afternoon. And just as he finished the job, the gentleman who had placed the order entered his home. Commending the man for his work, he said: "It has come out exactly as I had wanted it." The serendipity stupefied the `statue maker'!
"Even now I'm not sure how it all happened," smiles T.P.R. Ganesh Iyer. He went on to learn the art, the raw materials needed and the scientific way to go about making them. He has made Raghavendra idols for Brindavans in Nanganallur, Azhwar Thirunagar and Saligramam in Chennai and also in Bhuvanagiri and Neyveli. He has made more than a lakh Raghavendra figures big and small. "If you are asked to sit and do dhyana your mind could wander. We need visual impact. That's where an idol in front of you helps. Also one needs a guru to keep him focussed on the right path. Raghavendra is my guru. That's why this manufacturing unit is called Guru & Co.," he says.
Ganesh began making idols with clay, switched over to gypsum and cement and now uses fibreglass. His unit is housed in an old, worn-out building — No.87, (old no.42) Lake View Road, West Mambalam, Chennai, (Ph: 044-23716110; 98419-25798).
Idols in various stages of completion are seen on the terrace, where he welcomes you. "About 15 women work here. Their assistance is indispensable. We take orders to make huge, medium sized and even miniature idols of Gods and gurus," says Ganesh.
Ananda Sai at Poonthandalam
The Sai Baba image he has created.
Ramanan and his wife are ardent devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba. Ramanan's aim in life is to buy a couple of grounds in the city, build a small mandapam and have an idol of Shirdi Baba installed. But it's not going to be easy.
A guru tells them that they would receive a large piece of land and a statue in a year and a half. And the statue, in a sitting posture with the right hand raised in blessing, will be called Ananda Sai.
After about six months a woman named Surya comes to Ganesh and places an order for a huge Shirdi Baba. Meanwhile Ramanan and his wife happen to meet Muthu, of Sairam Engineering College, in Poonthandalam, Chennai.
Learning about their keenness to build a temple for Sai Baba, Muthu donates 33 acres for the purpose! And another chance meeting, this time with Surya, leads the Ramanans to a greater surprise. She tells them that she is having a Baba idol made but actually does not have a place for it.
Meeting them is a Godsend she says and donates the idol to the temple. Stranger is the fact that Ganesh has created it in the posture predicted! Thus has come into existence the Shirdi Sai Mandir near Sairam Engineering College.
In future Ganesh hopes to build a pantheon for the various gurus including Ramanuja. Just recently he has had a large idol of the Sage of Kanchi installed in his house, in an ambience re-created to appear like the Paramacharya's abode in Thenambakkam. He has named it Guru Darshan.
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