Lighting genius Sridhar das needs little more than a fan motor and a wooden cylinder for his unique lighting creations, including the peacock boat that made it to the mayor's Thames fest in London

If you were to walk down the major streets of Kolkata this week, you are bound to stumble upon an illumination showcasing Paul -- the tentacled soothsayer and the controversial star of the FIFA 2010 World Cup, held earlier this year.


The Peacock Boat was Sridhar Das' first three-dimensional project

The demure man behind the winking and dancing lights that create moving shadows is Sridhar Das, who set up his lighting shop over 50 years ago when he was just 17. The lighting genius hails from the nondescript town of Chandernagore, a former French colony, situated on the moon-shaped banks of the Ganges, 30 kilometers north of Kolkata.

Sridhar becomes quite the local celebrity, during the time of Durga Puja celebrations every year for his elaborate tableaus. "This year, I have woven in a message to curtail pollution of all kinds, and superimposed that with images of Spiderman," says the pioneer in a telephonic interview. "But since the highlight of this year has been the octopus, it was only obvious that we put him up."

Behind the scenes
Shridhar's 20 ft x 12 ft synchronised light creations made their way to the Festival of India in Moscow, while another three-dimensional one in the shape of the peacock was paraded down the streets of London. About the technicalities that went into the making of the panels, the lighting expert says, "People find it hard to believe that primitive equipment like a fan roller and a wooden cylinder are what make thousands of these bulbs light up." Shridhar's clever designs address contemporary themes every year, striking a chord with the masses.u00a0
The production of these lights has become a cottage industry in the sleepy, seaside town, where 200 people are employed in Shridhar's workshop alone. The septuagenarian has displayed his tableaus in Mumbai and Delhi, and even had his majestic 'Mayurpankhi' -- the peacock boat -- that used 1,35,000 micro bulbs installed as the centerpiece for the Mayor's Thames Festival in London in 2003. This was the first time that Sridhar had displayed his lighting on a three-dimensional surface.
It might be difficult to communicate with Shridhar in any other language, apart from Bengali, but he does manage to say in broken Hindi, "It's good fun to travel and see the world, and then light it up."