Story
The story behind the birth of Seed Ganapathy
It was the end of the semester and if you have studied in a typical engineering college, you would have sensed it's time for submitting projects. Coming up with an innovative project idea and executing it is a challenging job, where most of the students prefer copying from online. But, we unusuals and repels loved challenges and are fascinated by its complexity. Though we were from a computer science background, we were always intrigued by nature and spent most of the time with her. A couple of my best friends and I wandered and worried that the days were numbered. But the fire in us was in rage that no one was on the point of giving up and doing something that already exists on the internet. We were clear with our mission to find ways to preserve and conserve our environment. We need to come up with something real quick as the deadline is around the corner. That day, I was staring at the calendar, didn’t know that this idea is going to be a product that is soon going to revolutionise the way we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi.
The light bulb moment
Project aside, the more painful and worst part was thinking about the end of college and missing my friends. Though the semester exams and placements bring a chill to my spine, I was more concerned about losing my friends. Despite the heartbreaking thoughts, I was checking the calendar for the exam day. While changing the months, our eyes would automatically check the holidays and at what day it falls. If it was Sunday, we would curse the festival. There were not many festivals in June, July or August. While I changed the month from August to September, my eyes glued to Ganesh Chaturthi, one of the joyous celebrations as we can taste the delicious modhakas and sweet delicacies. Moreover, during Ganesh Chaturthi, we show our pride by buying one of the grandest and tallest Ganesha idols for our street. It shows our demeanour and image. To perform the visarjan, we take the breathtaking Ganesha idol decorated with flowers, jewels and colourful frills to the beach. Looking back at the day was bliss and, that’s when I realised the aftermath of how terrible the beach looked after the day of visarjan. I happen to remember one of the worst sights, Ganesha idols not being dissolved fully, and the whole beach looked like a mess. It got stuck in my mind, and I immediately started to question, why the Ganesha idols didn't dissolve in water and what is wrong with our tradition and conviction? I researched and understood the ill effects of the Ganesha Idols made of Plaster of Paris.
Birth of Seed Ganesha
Learning about the damages of POP causing imbalance to marine life, got hold of my breath. I knew at the moment, here is the challenge I confront to not just solve, but evolve it into a product that heals mother nature. My friends and I started working on studying the properties of each component that should go into the Ganesha idol to make it environment friendly. We created an idol with mud, natural composts and chemical-free paints. We felt that anyone can do this and what makes us stand out? How are we going to make the sand idols a proprietary solution to global warming and climate change? What does it take to make our vision real (ie) to conserve and preserve our nature and go green? While breaking our heads on how to tackle it, one of my friends said, why don’t give away plant saplings when selling our Ganesha. That was an incredible idea and that's when I realised why shouldn’t we imbibe seeds in our Ganapathy? All my friends were flattered and we got it. And, that’s how seed Ganesha was born. A bunch of VIPs took the road less travelled and ended up finding a disruptive eco-friendly product revolutionising the way we celebrate our festivals. Now, Seed Ganesha has more than 1000 customers and sold more than 7000 Ganesha idols. We are on a mission to replace POP idols with eco-friendly Ganesha idols by 2025. It is not possible without your contribution. Following the steps of our Father of Nation - Mahatma Gandhi, let us be the change that we want to see in the world. Let us join our hands together to heal the world.