Hyderabad, September 11, 2013: Vinayak Chaturthi is perhaps the only time of the year when people venture out to buy a Ganesh idol.

For P. Shekhar, however, buying and collecting Ganesh idols is an activity of a lifetime. Since 1973, when the first Ganesh idol made up of Plaster of Paris was gifted to him by his parents, Mr. Shekhar, rather painstakingly, has so far collected a whopping 15,253 Ganesh idols.

The hall and two bedrooms of his house in West Marredpally are crammed from top to bottom with Ganesh idols.

The walls are lined with huge book racks in which, instead of books, Ganesh idols of every size, shape and colour are placed with a lot of care.

Every vantage position in the house has been used to display the idols. To prevent dust from gathering on the idols, Mr. Shekhar has covered the racks with see through plastic.

Owing to space constraints, Mr. Shekhar has been forced to keep a large portion of his collection in cartons.

“I am trying to construct a hall here, which can be used as a museum to display the idols permanently. Hopefully, by next year, I will be able to do so,” he says.

His collection is a treasure trove of trivia with each idol having its own unique background story. “I have all the 32 forms of Ganesh statues like Sankathara Ganapati, 12 Raasi Ganapati and Shubdristi Ganesh. Each idol has a story and it will be interesting to read for children and adults alike when we put them up in a museum.”

Photos, posters too

Apart from idols, Mr. Shekhar also has 18,342 photographs, 1,096 posters, 164 books, 178 key chains and 154 audio and video cassettes of Ganesh. “I do this because I love the elephant Godand not just for the sake of creating records,” he points out.

Shekhar has already made it to the Limca Book of Indian Records, India Book of Records, Unique World Records, Everest World Records and Assist World Records.

To check out his collections one may call: 6527-4375.

Source: The Hindu, September 11, 2013