SURAT (Commodity Online): And, this Ganesh festival in Surat will be different with a diamond Ganesh stealing the show.

A 182.53 carat diamond Ganesh is the talk of the town now. The proud owner of the diamond Ganesh is Kanubai Asodaria, who had bought this rough diamond from Antwerp, Belgium.

Like most devotees, 52-year-old Kanubhai Asodaria is offering prayers to this Ganesha these days.

He has kept this diamond Ganesh in a safe. Asodaria got this 182.53 carat rough about 10 years ago from Antwerp. The stone with outlines of a trunk, eyes, ears and even legs was mined from South Africa.

He had purchased rough stones in bulk. When he sorted them out, he spotted the biggest stone resembled Lord Ganesh. He decided to preserve it and this and he has refused to part with this diamond all these years.

A London-based auction house had offered him huge money for the stone about six years ago. He has made elaborate arrangements to protect the gemstone. A native of Gondal near Rajkot, Asodaria moved to Surat 14 years ago and started his own diamond business.

Like other diamond traders, he sources roughs from abroad and gets them polished in Surat.

He refuses to get this stone polished as it would lose its divine shape.

The diamond is certified by the central government-run Indian Diamond Institute (IDI), Surat. The yellowish grey stone is approximately 48 mm high, 32 mm wide and 20 mm thick and weighs 36.50 grams.

In Hubli, Karnataka, a diamond Ganesh is hogging the limelight. The Ganesh idol had been made using 80,000 American diamonds and about 800 coloured stones. It was the hard work of a young artist Mahesh Murgod, who took the help of his family members to make the idol attractive.

Though there were various types of Ganesh idols being prepared in the streets of the city, known for the lively idols, Mahesh’s Ganesh idol stole the show.

The work of Mahesh stood out even as he gave final touches to his one foot long Ganesh.

The entire idol was covered with shining American diamonds and various types of artificial stones to give more beauty to the idol.

It took nearly five months for him to complete the idol along with his parents and sister.

The diamonds were bought from Machalipatnam in Andhra Pradesh where they were available in plenty and at reasonable price.

The idol would be sent to Bengaluru for Rajaji Nagar Swastika Youth Club which had ordered the artist to prepare this type of Ganesh idol.

The total cost of the idol was Rs 2 lakh, Mahesh said, adding this was his family art which was in practice for the last four generations.

He said he had been involved in this work for the past 18 years and had prepared more than 1,000 Ganesh idols of various types with different artistic look.

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