IE : This festival, make colours out of puja flowers : Sept 6, 2007
This festival, make colours out of puja flowers
Lakhichand Jain, a senior faculty at B D Somani Institute of Fashion
Technology, has devised a unique way to make natural paint colours with
flowers
Nitya Kaushik
Mumbai, September 05: With Ganesh mahotsav approaching, efforts are being
made from all corners to make the festival more eco-friendly.
Every year, during Ganpati, the BMC is faced with a queer problem-the
disposal of tonnes of flower offerings at various pandals around the city.
Have you ever wondered what happens to the flowers that you offered to your
gully’s Ganpati last year? Most probably they were disposed of at the
chowpatty, left to float in the sea for days, rot and suffocate water
bodies.
But, this time around, Lakhichand Jain, a senior faculty at B D Somani
Institute of Fashion Technology, is lending a helping hand. He has devised a
unique way to make natural paint colours with flowers. In a project called
Nirmalya se rang (colours out of flowers), he along with a few other
like-minded volunteers plan to visit various Ganesh pandals this Ganesh
Chaturthi and demonstrate the technique of making colours.
Jain has also planned an e-concept-the volunteers are now working on an
e-page explaining their projet- which will be e-mailed to over 1,000
citizens and activists before the festival begins.
“Extracting colours out of flowers is not just easy but also a zero
investment and zero wastage process. Even a child can extract colours from a
flower or a leaf. Also, after drawing out the colour, the pulp can also be
used as manure in soil,” added Jain.
Jain, who hails from a family of artists of the Rajasthani art form Madana,
has been studying ways to minimise the burden on the ecology for long.
“Festivals are fun but can some have side effects on our environment. During
visarjan along with the Ganpatis, tonnes of flowers are disposed off into
the water in seas, rivers and wells. These flowers rot in water, cause bad
smell and imbalance in the aquatic bodies. They destroy our environment.”
“These colours are very easy to use. For light painting, one has to use just
a single layer and for a vibrant shade, three to four layers. Once the
painting dries, it will last for years without decay,” says Jain. After
conducting several tests and improvisations on his original recipe, Jain
says, he has now found a way to make the colours permanent on cloth and
papers. So this year, get ready for a truly environment-free Ganesh
Chaturthi.
Publication : IE; Section : MN; Pg : 1; Date : 6/9/07
URL : http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=254728