Old statue of Sir Kasturchand Daga finally reaches home

 

 

 

The statue of Sir Kasturchand Daga, a philanthropist and a visionary, was installed in 1922 at the corner of Kasturchand Park, where it stood tall for almost 98 long years. It was witness to several events, most of them historic, and also to the changing facade of the city. The statue crafted in white Italian marble was also witness to glorious events even as it remained a piece of neglect, apathy, callousness of the region to whom Sir Kasturchand had bestowed so much of his money and legacy. But it remained quiet at one corner of the ground withering the passing storms of all these years.

 

Though the statue’s glory did not fade even by an inch despite the neglect, a weather storm unexpectedly brought it down, shattered it into pieces. But Daga family made him alive, gave him honour, restored his statue. This old statue finally found home as it is being unveiled at the farm of Daga family on Amravati road. On April 18, 2020 when the statue of Sir Kasturchand fell to nature’s fury, the civic authorities collected those pieces into a sack and threw into dungeon. Govind Daga, a business tycoon and great grandson of Sir Kasturchand Daga did not remain quiet. He approached civic authorities with a thought to do something about the old statue. Some people approached him as they wanted the pieces of Sir Daga to be kept in their drawing rooms to take a different look.

 

“I could never imagine the very concept of somebody using the piece of statue as ash-tray. It was disgusting even to think,” expressed Govind Daga. After his constant approach finally civic authorities handed the sack of those pieces to Daga who sent them to Jaipur to one artist Kundan Bharadwaj. Daga suggested the artist to assemble those pieces and prepare the new statue of his great grandfather. “Fortunately, face of the statue was not damaged. The life even in statue or in photo reflects in eyes. With face was intact we felt relieved,” Suman Rathi, sister of Govind Daga heaved a sigh of relief. The artist at Jaipur assembled the statue and started creating the new one. Meanwhile, he kept giving a shape to old one. On one hand Govind Daga was shaping up the things at Nagpur, Suman Rathi and her daughter Aditi were trying to bring back the beauty of the statue.

 

“We told the artist that the old statue was made of Italian marble and it should not lose its beauty. The artist though initially showed reluctance but he did work on it by putting his heart into it,” elaborated Suman Rathi. Daga pointed out, “If one has a look at the old statue, one would find it more beautiful than the new one.” Perhaps the quality that existed in 1920s of material and of human excellence is the reason. When asked what happened to old statue, Daga replied with a very proud feeling, “We brought it at our home. It will adore our farm which is at about half an hour distance from Nagpur on Amravati road. I never thought of it, till the process was underway. But suddenly I felt this statue should not be kept elsewhere and we decided to install it at our farm.”

 

This seven-and-a-half feet statue of Sir Kasturchand Daga finally came home. It was after a long struggle that the statue came home. For others it may be the non-living thing but for Daga family it is their grand old man who did so much for the society and gave his family a motivation. The uniqueness of this whole event is there will be twin statues of one person. This is probably the first of its kind. Though authorities have promised to create safety cover around the statue to be unveiled at the Kasturchand Park ground, the old statue would surely reside at safe place where it would be respected in real manner.