Professionally, Kumar
Talpade is an architect with many
years of experience working
in India, the United States and England. His flair for sculpting developed
from an early age; he learnt his art from the age of 8 A fine artist by
education. The art and sculpting took a backseat in his early 20's as he
chose to pursue his architecture studies.
Appropriately, Kumar is
a devotee of Lord Ganesha and choose the first day of the auspicious
festival of Shravana to begin preparations on the Ganesha Idol. It takes
around 4 weeks to create the complete sculpture, and he therefore works on
the model every day for atleast one to two hours after returning from
work. Every alternate year he creates an Idol measuring 2 to 3 feet in
height, while on an annual basis he creates a miniature idol in the
religious ceremonies.
Whiles the sculpting process is under way,
Kumar chooses to remain on a strictly vegetarian diet. His belief is that
this abstinence from non-vegetarian food allows him to concentrate on the
task he undertakes each year. Kumar also designs and creates decorative
back-drops behind the finished Ganesh idol, and has done so for the
previous 10 years, with the assistance of his friends in Maharashtra
Mandal London, without their help this task would not have been possible.
He remains grateful to many who came forward to help him in the last few
years.
It is worth mentioning that this festival is well attended
by members of other communities on annual basis as news has spread.
Contact
Details: Kumar Talpade: kumar.talpade@cwcom.net |
