Sacked teacher turns idol maker in survival bid

Thirty-year-old Gouri Sarkar Deb never failed to reach her school while he was serving as a teacher in a government school. Having all her school and household tasks done she used to invest her time in idol making. The lady used to work with other clay artists and by a period of time, she began to make idols on her own. Her job could not resist her passion for the work that now turned out to be her profession.

Agartala (Tripura):Thirty-year-old Gouri Sarkar Deb proudly admits that she was among the 10,323 teachers who lost their jobs followed by the Supreme Court order and a big section of them were spearheading movements demanding a permanent solution to their plight, but in her case, she denied to sit idle or participate in movement but started exploring ways to find an alternate way.

The determined woman first tried to arrange some students for private tuition but unfortunately, the pandemic did not give her that chance. After a lot of efforts, she set up a small studio of her own where she worked round the clock to design beautiful idols of various deities in quest of a decent living. Gouri converted a store room into her studio at her residence located at Hairmara Tilla, AD Nagar located in the peripheries of Agartala city.

Thirty-year-old Gouri Sarkar Deb making idols

As the Saraswati Puja is round the corner, Deb had made altogether a hundred small-sized idols, preferred for household Pujas, that she will bring to the market before the Puja. Narrating her experience, she said, “I have spent a lot of time with idol making but not at my own place. I used to work at different houses as I love doing that”.

On being asked as to why she switched to this way of earning, She said, “There is nothing that I can start afresh at this time. I should do something that I know. After we have been released from service and salary stopped, I have tried to get some students for tuitions but due to Covid 19 induced lockdown nothing can work out. And, whenever I have tried to arrange some job for me or sit for an interview, I have been sent back with the customary — the government will do something for you”.

Deb, the mother of a five-year-old daughter, also said, her duty is to offer a better future for her only daughter. She also said that she did not have that much money so that she could start something in a big way as she hailed from a BPL family.

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