Vadodara: When worshipers walked to the workshop of this artist to bring home their idol ganesh in the city, they did not introduce ourselves to their names.
Instead, they must give their grandfather or grandfather’s name and only then the Chavan family handed over the Ganesh idol.
Funny because it looks like the family Chavan has followed this norm for decades.
“We don’t recognize our customers with their names.
They have to give their grandfather or grandfather’s name before we hand over them over the idol of Ganesh,” said Mangesh Chavan, whose family had made Ganesh’s idols in the city for a century.
When asked why they followed the unique norm, Chavan said, “Most of our customers have ordered Ganesh’s idols from us for two to three generations.
We have a fixed set of customers and we have stopped adding new ones for a long time.
So, we make Ganesh IDOLAs are limited every year and hand them to our clients a few days before the Ganesh Festival begins.
“” My grandfather has made a list of our customers who ordered Ganesh’s idols every year and my father continued with the same name as the second generation of clients also came to us for idols .
When I started making idols, I also use the same customer list.
So, now we know our customers by their grandfather or grandfather’s name, “Chavan, who also made the Royal Gaekwad family idol ganesh, told toi.
So much so sometimes if there are customers giving their names to buy idols, Chavan becomes confused and must refer to their old list to know the name of the grandfather.
“My grandfather General Nanasheb Shinde first bought Ganesh Idol from Chavan in the 1920s and since then we have gotten ganpati murti from them.
Of the size and weight on the design, nothing has changed in our Ganesh Idol in the last 100 years,” Sataki Shinde said, a resident of Navapura.
Many Chavan clients remember that their ancestors bought the Ganesh idol for 25 Paisa Seabad ago.
“My grandfather Tajirao first ordered Ganesh Idol from Chavan about 70 years ago.
We still give his name when we go to Chavan to take our idol,” said Hemant Mohite, a resident of Vadsar.