CUTTACK: The flourish of creativity and imagination marked the lanes, bylanes and thoroughfares, as Ganesh Puja commenced with pomp and splendour in the millennium city on Thursday. Themed pandals and Ganesh idols seemed to have become the order of the day as the youth clubs and organisations engaged in a game of oneupmanship to come up with the most unconventional ideas that even bordered on the bizarre. If there was an idol made of cotton swabs at one locality, it was lemons, bottles, snack papads, grass and baby palms at others. The boys of the Alpha Group at Emporium Lane, Mangalabag, came up with one of the most striking ideas to sculpt their idol on the pandal, perched atop an overhead platform above the road, with glass beads. The Lord was installed in the form of Oriya alphabets spelling his name and sparkling with the reflective glass ornamentation. “We had made a Ganesha idol of chillums last year, symbolising his father Lord Shiva’s indulging. The year before we had carved the Lord out of Bael leaves, again the prasad of Lord Shiva. This year, however, we focussed on Lord Ganesha himself and the Oriya pride in the present times when English and Hindi are threatening to gobble up our own language”, said Manoj Das of the club. At Hero Club, Meria Bazaar, the idol was made up of tablets, capsules, syringes and medical cotton swabs. The theme conjured up awareness on use of rational drugs and prescribed medicines. Thousands of tablets and capsules, all expired and sourced from big agencies, have been used in shaping the idol. “We have spent around ` 14,000 on the idol. The objective is to sensitise the people of the dangers of resorting to self- medication without seeking proper medical help as well as the message prevention is better than cure”, member Bipin said. The Lucky Club at Nimasahi resorted to design their Lord with bindis and black ribbons only. More than 4,000 red bindis were used in the process, said Dinesh. There were others who did not resort to the unconventional and extraordinary and crafted most eye-catching spectacles by being rooted to the traditional. The Power Club at Ranihat Canal Road was one such example, where the Lord was sculpted in clay but in the shape of Lord Tirupati. “We got the master sculptor from Andhra Pradesh, It took over 33 days to be complete,” Krishna Rao, the brain behind it, said.
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