A storehouse of talent

Unique Hobbies

We’ve heard a lot of people talk about generating wealth from waste. But how many of us would walk the talk?

Hardly a handful. But here’s a young woman whose commitment to convert waste into wealth began when she was barely 10 years old.

A habit that Prithvi, a teacher from Sophia High School, picked up from her mother grew and blossomed into a full-fledged hobby.  Now, she has not less than 600 items that she has crafted from waste.

Prithvi never throws away whatever she finds – everything that is normally considered waste transforms into something unimaginable given her inexhaustible imagination. And Prithvi is never tired of this for she’s a storehouse of ideas.

A walk into Prithvi’s home is like walking into a museum. An empty milk bottle, vaseline bottle, caps of all shapes and sizes, fevicol container, match sticks, cardboard pieces, coconut shells, ink stands, empty honey bottles, PVC pipes, wooden scrap – all change their form and character in Prithvi’s hand. “I picked this habit from my mother and there’s so much pleasure I get when I invent something from what people normally throw away. I preserve and use even the little pamphlets that come along with newspapers in the morning,” Prithvi tells
Metrolife.

But not many people know her talent for she has been quietly working on building the artist in her. Prithvi has had no formal training in art but she went for a couple of art classes to Leelama, her art teacher, who not only inspired her but also encouraged her to develop her passion.

“People at home don’t really know that I am this deeply involved in generating wealth from waste. I have seven or eight cupboards full of things I’ve made and collected over time. My husband is very encouraging but nobody else has given this talent a serious thought,” she adds.

In addition to what she finds in and around her house, Prithvi’s friends don’t forget to drop off something, which they might think could add to Prithvi’s collection. She calls children during the summer vacation in her school and in and around her neighbourhood to teach them art and craft.

“My school is very encouraging and I teach art on a regular basis. Most of my colleagues bring small little interesting things that they stumble upon in their houses and which they think might be useful for me. Indirectly, a lot of people help me build my talent,” she adds.

Prithvi confesses that more than half the things she has made is based on her observation of things in her school, the places she has visited and the ordinary events. “I was brought up to be content with what I have. I lived on simple things and as children we were taught never to waste things,” she explains. 

Prithvi works on her art whenever she can grab sometime after school hours and work at home. She reveals that there are times when she would wake up in the middle of the night to complete a piece of art she has been working on.
“You never know when ideas can strike. I keep nothing pending,” she says as she shows more of her work.

Prithvi makes little knick-knacks for her close friends and gifts it to them. “There’s always a personal touch when you give people something that you have conceived and made,” she says.

Prithvi also has in her kitty, a collection of 200 unique invitation cards of different designs, languages and varieties. An array of stamps, coins, cigar covers and match boxes also find a place in her
collection.