With a little training imparted by professionals, women hailing from simple backgrounds have been successful in making artefacts and souvenirs made of dry flowers.
Apart from making ‘agarbatthis’ from used flowers, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) has also embarked on making souvenirs and divine images made of dry flowers and has signed an MoU with Dr. YSR Horticultural University for imparting training. The training programme is being held at the varsity’s Tirupati-based Citrus Research Station. Women are being trained in making portraits of gods, paper weights, key chains, etc., with the dry flower technology.
TTD Joint Executive Officer (Health and Education) Sada Bhargavi, who visited the training camp on Tuesday, called it a privilege for the local women to get into making such ‘divine’ souvenirs. “The TTD is not engaged in such tasks for the sake of revenue or enterprise, but with the sacred vision to present the used flowers, which are viewed as ‘Swami Pushpa Prasadam’, to the devout”, she reiterated.
Vice-Chancellor T. Janakiram, who joined the meeting via a virtual link, thanked the TTD for taking its endeavour to provide a devotee-friendly environment to a new high by involving the varsity.
Citrus Research Station in-charge R. Nagaraju and TTD Deputy Executive Officer Ramana Prasad showed the products made with elan by the women after the training programme.
