INDIA, September 15, 2015 (The Hindu): If you have more than 16,845 statues of Ganesha, you are bound to walk into record books! This is what has happened to P. Shekhar, whose lifetime love affair with the statues of the elephant God has earned him a rightful passage into the Guinness Book of World Records for dedicating his life to collecting rare and unique statues of Ganesha.
A bank employee by profession, Mr. Shekhar has varied interests but all related to Ganesha. When he is not collecting statues, then he is writing a book Vishwa Vinayaka that covers Ganesha temples across the world. He is also trying to build a Pancha Mukha Ganesha Temple in Hyderabad with an aim to “help needy people and to solve their problems through Ganesha.”
“I have dedicated my life to collecting the statues of Ganesha. Now, I want to do something to help the public and that’s why I’m trying to build a temple for Lord Ganesha. Some of my collection is also from countries like Afghanistan, Indonesia, Germany, Pakistan, Singapore, Ireland, Kenya, etc. The artwork of Ganesha statues is well liked and respected everywhere,” says Mr. Shekhar.