Pune gets Paani Puri Ganpati

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Pune (Maharashtra) [India], Sep 15 : As Ganesh Chaturthi is being celebrated across the nation with great fervour, a shop, ‘Ganesh Bhel’ in Maharashtra’s Pune have a Ganpati idol made of paani puris. Keeping up with eco-friendly theme, this idol is made up of around 10,000 puris and bamboo sticks.
The owner of the shop got the idea of making this Ganpati idol after he saw one made up of biscuits.
“Since our business is of chaat, I came up with this idea. In 2011, we had a Ganpati made of all the ‘Bhel’ material. We thought of making it with paani puris this time,” said Ramesh Gudmewar, owner of Ganesh Bhel.
Speaking about the idol, artist Prashant Salunkhe who made it, said, “I made it from 10,000 puris; it took me almost 100 hours of work to build this. To prevent it from turning bad, I have used a hardener on the puris. All the materials used in this are eco-friendly.”
He further spoke about the concept behind the idol, “The concept of this idol is basically shown as the idol of Ganesha itself is distributing the ‘Bhel’ to people and his mouse is helping him in this. And, the sun behind the idol symbolises energy, as the owners would need the energy to maintain the shop.”
The Hindu festival, which is dedicated to the Lord of new beginnings, Ganesha marked with the installation of the deity’s idol at home and at elaborate pandals. The festival ends with the final immersion, also called the Visarjan of Lord Ganesha’s idol. The 10-day festival is of great significance in Maharashtra.