Rintu Rathod

Artist-sculptor
Is planning a free digital workshop to tutor participants in making a sustainable pure-chocolate Ganesha idol

This year, Ganeshotsav will see toned-down festivities after restrictions on gatherings are in place to contain the spread of COVID-19. Devotees, who bring an idol of Bappa home every year, are facing a hitch in reaching the murti makers, several of whom are not running the usual operations given the shortage of material and skilled manpower. Santacruz-based sculptor Rintu Rathod has a sweet solution to the problem— a digital workshop that will teach over 1,500 people from more than 37 countries the art of creating their own Ganesh idol out of chocolate. The sessions start from August 15 and are free of cost. A trained commercial designer from the Baroda School of Arts, Rathod specialises in life-size chocolate sculptures. She came up with the concept of the chocolate Ganesha in 2012, after she visited Juhu beach a few days after Ganpati visarjan, and was affected by the sight of broken idols scattered amid filth, with people stamping over them. She made the idols out of sugar and almond paste for the first two years, and dissolved them in milk to distribute it to children from an orphanage as prasad.