Musing and Realizing

Hey, so yesterday, was the day everyone was waiting for. Ram Mandir Pran Prathista, I felt very happy watching television. It was a dream come true actually.

So, my uncle, does some things using electronics for all festivals. He had wanted to make Mooshak clap for Ganesh Chaturthi. But there was some huge trouble with our basic setup last year and he couldn’t make it. This time, for yesterday’s event, he decided to make a statue of Hanuman playing the instrument Taal for Shri Ram.

It wasn’t hard, you know, we had two months. So it took a month for the internal mechanism to be made. Like moving hands. And then, only the outer stuff was left, like making the body with POP or clay. But for the other body parts like legs, hands, and torso, we made it using cardboard boxes recycled paper. It is not good to smell but once dry, it gives a good shape. Our main intention here is one thing- lightweight. So all paper-made stuff was preferred. But to make it all look good, we needed to cover everything.

He decided on Shadu mati, but we didn’t get it for 20 days because of some delivery issues. Well, I was furious but I couldn’t do anything.

Now, there were only 6 days left and we had not made our statue. So, I asked my friend who had an Amazon Prime membership, and she allowed me to order the clay with a one-day delivery option.

So our troubles were gone for now.

The clay was here and my uncle started sculpting my face. The first time he did, it was okay. But when we put it up with the frame, we felt it was a little small.

So round 2 began. It was afternoon and within two hours, the face was done. My mother liked it very much. And I of course loved it.

So now there was only one day left.

We had a frame, legs, and hands. And now we found the paper ones were smaller and they wouldn’t cover the frame hands. So, we rolled paper sheets and glued them in the shape of hands.

That problem was gone.

The face sculpture also dried.

We put it on the frame. Looked like everything was on track.

And now, because the face was somewhat heavy, it made the total frame vibrate more when the motor was on. And everything got cracks. I was really in panic mode.

We had less than 12 hours and it was all falling apart.

We then decided to use mseal so the feet don’t vibrate more and then increase the overall vibrations. That worked.

And for the torso, because the previous one was not okay, we used tissue paper and added layers one on one.

Then, when that was drying, my uncle set up flags near the porch. It all ended at midnight.

There was coloring left.

But the day now is 22 January.

We were behind schedule and frankly, very sad. I was okay because, I figured, let’s set up everything in the evening. But my uncle had another view.

Finally, we got to painting at nearly eleven. And we stopped that at 12 to watch TV. It was really glorious to see the temple. Very happy.

After two, we set to paint and at four, we were done. Unbelievable, it was really unbelievable.

Then, I worked to add clothes and some ornaments. And we were very happy to see it was done.

Now, the neighbor kids came to watch and they all loved it.

We set it up outside and many kids came to watch. It felt really good to see something that was done with my help.

Here’s the final video.

Keep smiling!

To my friend, thank you so much!

And if you do something like this, tell me, so we can talk more about it.

जय श्री राम