By IANS
Mumbai : The rising mercury in Mumbai melted a unique plan of three ice sculptors from Finland to create an igloo at the four-day Mumbai International Boat Show (MIBS).
The igloo was planned for Europe’s leading airline Finnair, which has set up a stall at the MIBS, which opened here Thursday.
The airline had commissioned professional ice sculptor Sakari Rautio, who along with two others decorated the stall with a gleaming ice sculpture of the airline’s logo.
“Actually, we had planned out a typical Finland landscape with a lot of snow and even built an igloo. It had to be abandoned owing to the technical hitches,” Rautio told IANS.
“However, looking at the speed at which the ice is melting, we might have to sculpt three to four of them each day,” a worried Rautio said, wiping off perspiration from his brow in the humid Mumbai weather.
Heikki Dirkola, the second sculptor, was visibly upset after the igloo plan was abandoned.
“It would have been a great novelty in India. We could have attracted huge crowds to an igloo set in a typical Scandinavian landscape,” he sighed.
To compensate, the artists have now laid imitation snowballs near the sculpture. When crushed, the snowballs sound like real snow.
Pauli Konttajarvi, the third ice sculptor, said: “Actually, we had heard that Mumbai was experiencing unusually cold weather till few days back. If only the chills had continued for a few more days, we could have treated Mumbaikars to a snowy Finnish landscape crowned by an igloo.”
“The Finnair ice lounge here is a new way for us to promote not only the airline but also Finnair’s destinations, which include some of the prime boating spots in the world,” said Sakari Romu, vice president of Finnair’s commercial division.