Mangaluru: As the city decorated itself with lights on the festival which drives away darkness, the gentle breeze blew to make the Goodu-Deepas sway to it’s tune at Gokarnanatheshwara Temple in Kudroli. The Goodu Deepa (hanging basket lantern) competition complemented the festival of lights and brought out the essence of Deepavali in the city.
On the first day of Deepavali festival every year for the past 17 years, the temple has been hosting Goodu Deepa and model making competitions. This year, on October 29 the same competition was held on an even grander note with some goodu deepas stealing the show. More than 400 of these hanging lanterns and a hundred various models were exhibited at the venue. Several thousands of Mangaloreans used their festival holiday to visit the event and get awed by the exhibits.
Among the umpteen types of goodu-deepas made out of various materials, the ones made out of paper cups, coins of various denominations, candles, wood, zippers and Cadbury Gems swept the attention of every visitor. Sri Nithyananda Yuvaka Mandali from Jokatte spent 13,780.25 Rupees on coins of various denominations to design a 52 kilogram goodu-deepa. Sandesh Kodikal had ordered for 15,000 candles of 7 different colours from a local manufacturer and took 27 days to make a candle goodu-deepa.
While these lanterns stole the show, there was an elegant teakwood one made by woodworker Jagadeesh Acharya from Jokatte. The Cadbury Gems lantern which had 19,896 gems on it made by Karthikeya from Kodialguthu and the 10 KG zipper lantern made by brothers Gowrish and Vignesh Mallya captured the attention of children.
Apart from the goodu-deepas, there was a massive floral elephant made by Prakriti flowers from Car Street. This eight foot tall Mysuru Dasara elephant was completely adorned with carnations and orchids had a howdah on top with an idol of Durga in it. “It took 12 men and Rs. 40,000 to finish the work in a single day while keeping the flowers hydrated”, said Dayanand, the man behind the idea.
Among the models of various types depicting Mangalorean culture and heritage, a tremendously scaled down model of Thennangur Panduranga Thiruvannamalai Temple, Tamil Nadu drew a huge gathering towards it. It is a seven month long hard work of Purushottam, Srinivas, Mudara Poojary and Girija from Kudupu. It is to be noted that this team of four are speech impaired. Former Minister Krishna J Palemar who came to view the models commended them for their effort in making a fine piece of architecture.
The other crowd pullers were cardboard and thermocol models of monuments, fishing boat models made of wood, pili vesha (tiger dancers) stuffed toys and a model of Taj Mahal made of 40,000 match sticks.
On the whole, the competition among the contestants dissolved into an exhibition of talent, skill and out-of-the-box ideation. The overdose of colours and light had indeed kickstarted Deepavali celebrations in the city.
