College students in Nashik celebrate Ganpati with eco-friendly idols

With the ongoing Kumbh celebrations in Nashik, it was a surprise for the college authorities and professors to see most of their students enthusiastically welcoming Bappa in their respective colleges. Although it was a holiday, students, who are mostly volunteering at Kumbh, were seen inside college premises in huge numbers and took part in the celebrations.The NBT Law College had a big puja set up at the entrance of the college.Prasad Jakhdi, the cultural head of the college acknowledged the efforts taken by his collegemates, “Due to Kumbh, majority of the roads were closed, and hence most of the students couldn’t make it to college. But the ones who did reach helped a lot in decorating the place and the platform to welcome Bappa”
In BYK College of Commerce, students welcomed the Elephant God in a palkhi. The teachers and students alike were present at the college early in the morning for the same. Prof HM Govilkar said that the college authorities were really happy that the students took so much efforts for the festival. He added, “We also have festival-related competitions happening in the college every year. This time, due to drought, we were thinking of the competitions to be focused around drought related subjects.”
They were not the only ones. The teachers and students of HPT and RYK College of Arts and Science too made it a point to reach college early in the morning for the celebrations. Harping on the usage of eco-friendly idols, Suresh Nakhate, general secretary of the college, said, “It is important that we use eco-friendly idols as we are all aware of how the PoP idols harm our environment. I am of the opinion that such idols should rather be banned from sale. On the other hand, I am glad that we decided to do our bit for our planet by opting to go green this year.”
Taking a step ahead of everyone, a team of 15 students from RH Sapat College of Engineering made their idol themselves using 24 kgs of clay and natural colours. Talking about the experience, Ayush Soni, general secretary of the college, said, “It was a great experience to make the idol ourselves. The real motive behind making the idol was to bring all the students from various faculties together, something that was the prime aim of this festival when Lokmanya Tilak started it.”
Their efforts were rivaled by NDMVP College of Engineering. The creative students of this college made a symbolic Ganesha out of concrete bricks and PVC pipes and named him ‘Concreteshwar’. “For us, Baapa is an epitome of strength, so we decided to make him out of concrete bricks,” explained Noopur Lokwani, ladies representative of the college.