He is all of 14 and a student of Class 9 at Mushtifund High School, Cujira, but Shyam Bhosle for one so young has managed to make his mark. He has managed to showcase his artistic talent by decorating Ganesh idols with diamond like decorations and traditional dhotis.
His creative journey commenced last year. He adorned the statue in his aunt’s house which caught the attention of some visitors who liked what they saw and placed orders with him. Last year, he adorned four statues and this year, he has done 13 already.
The work looks intricate and it looks like hours of work have gone into each statue and he says if he spends half a day, it would take him two days and if he spent the entire day at the workshop, it would take him a day. “The cost of doing a statue would depend on the size of it. The materials like a shawl, the diamond chains were all sourced from the local market,” says Shyam. He has a partner called Vedaan, who cuts everything and
helps him out. Shyam is the solitary child of his parents. His father runs a business, a crockery shop while his mother is a housewife.
The shop where he prepares the Lord Ganesh statues is called the Natekar Ganpati Chitrashala in the EDC building near Vishal Megamart in Panjim. He first saw this being done by others in the shop and then brought his own twist to the entire exercise which brought him business. He claimed to not know the reason for his success and said he had not thought about his future as yet.
When asked how much he had earned this year, he innocently said he had not counted as yet. This entire episode commenced when he went over to the store to buy a statue for the house. He was fascinated by what he saw the men were doing to the statues. Inspired by it, he did the same to the statue in his aunt’s house which caught the attention of others. Shyam now intends to learn to tie the art of creating 'phetes' (turbans) for Ganesh idols. I also want to try my hand at painting and sculpting idols,” he says. He intends to learn on the job.