Akuppam the words means A/Kuppam that is no/Waste. The idea is to make the waste a non-waste. But here the wastes are developed into pieces of art. The idea first came to my mind when I made a Ganesha out of a liquid soap bottle. The beauty was that it looked like Ganesha and a liquid soap bottle at the same time: the external shape of the waste object was not completely lost while bringing out the inner image. I did the same thing with a number of waste objects. This worked brilliantly in many cases that I was astounded by the happiness it gave me.

After making a fair number of these I thought maybe I should exhibit this. Navarathri was coming and I knew it is a tradition to put up a ‘bomma kolu’ (display of dolls) during the season. This doll show has much similarity with the Japanese doll show they conduct during the Peach festival singing praises to the peach blossoms. The doll festivals are there around the world in many places. Here the difference was that all these dolls are made out of wastes. Later my students also joined me and the whole thing was a real festival - but we enjoyed the preparations more than the show! Even the lamp used for the inaugural function was made out of plastic bottles and ceramic plates. There was one garden lamp too that was of my making with waste liquor bottles. For the inaugural function we made small iddlies with a doll iddly mold with chatney and sambar. These iddlies, only the size of a small tablet was being served in toy plates. There were tea and coffee in toy jugs which you were supposed to drink in toy cups. It was a one-of-its-own-kind experience!