Mystery of the missing ‘ladoo’

Radhika D Shyam

The modakas were untouched, so were the chaklis but where had the ladoos vanished? Riddhi, Siddhi and Rakesh looked askance at Ganesha

The house wore a festive look and the twins, Riddhi and Siddhi, were all excited. They looked forward to the nine days that would follow the main Ganesha festival. Their grandmother being a staunch devotee of the elephant god, it was a festival they celebrated in a grand manner.

There would be yummy goodies to relish, relatives and friends who would come visiting every day, and interesting stories of Ganesha that their grandmother would enthrall them with. And to top it all, there was a competition in their housing society for the best idol display. They were sure of winning the grand prize as their parents had got them a beautiful clay idol, which they painted with vegetable dyes.

Now that the festival was actually here, the girls were having a great deal of fun. They went to bed weary from all the excitement and slept soundly.
During the next morning’s puja however, their grandmother noticed that the bowl of ladoos looked different. On closer inspection, she discovered that there were only 10 ladoos in the bowl. She clearly remembered putting 11 ladoos into it the previous evening. She looked around and said to no one in particular, “Please don’t snack on sweets offered to the deity. You will get to enjoy your share after the aarti…”

Even before she finished her sentence, several pairs of eyes swivelled and fixed themselves on the twins and their older brother Rakesh! The kids in turn looked pointedly at their father, who had a sweeth tooth and couldn’t fight the temptation of popping a burfi or two into his mouth after every meal! They wondered why kids automatically figured on the list of suspects when adults were equally capable of gobbling up tasty tidbits!

Grandma’s stern warning didn’t deter the ladoo thief. On the third day, she found that 11 chaklis and 11 modakas — offered as prasadam— were intact, but one single ladoo had gone missing yet again!

Every night, the twins, Rakesh and their parents took turns to sleep in front of the idol. When it was Rakesh’s turn, Grandma told him to be extra alert and look out for the ladoo thief. But yet again, the ladoo-loving thief turned out to be smarter than everyone else.
When Gangamma, the maid, heard about the missing ladoos, she exclaimed, “Ganesha has been coming to your house to eat the ladoos! You are all truly blessed!”

Riddhi’s mother dismissed the thought. But the mystery troubled everyone and they decided to be extra watchful.

Two more nights of vigil yielded no clue and what’s more, the ladoos continued to disappear! The incident became the talk of the housing society and the neighbourhood and people began queueing up to see the ladoo-eating Ganesha.

Finally, Rakesh came up with a brilliant idea. He borrowed a CCTV camera from a friend. He installed it in the puja room so as to focus on the bowl of ladoos and the area around it. He didn’t forget to leave a light on – a light just bright enough to capture the action.
The next morning, yet another lone ladoo had done the disappearing act!

After the aarti, the whole family gathered to see the footage that had been recorded. What they saw left them amazed, astonished, astounded and amused! A tiny mouse had sneaked in through the ventilator, skidded down the wall, reached the bowl with the ladoos and nudged a ladoo out with his quivering nose. He had then picked it up using his forepaws and scooted through the ventilator.

Gangamma, who was watching the scene unfold with an increasing sense of wonder, shrieked, “Wah! Who can take the ladoo to Ganesha but his very own vahana —  the mouse?!”

“Mooshika, in Sanskrit,” Grandma said. And everyone burst out laughing.
Mom telephoned the doctor because she was worried about food contamination!
But it was Gangamma, who had the last word. “The house is so clean that we don’t even see the occasional cockroach, so how has a mouse come visiting and that too at this time of year? There’s more to this than meets the eye,” she declared and prostrated before the smiling idol.

Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/186269/mystery-missing-ladoo.html

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180-kg sweet offering for Vinayaka in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Vats of piping hot ‘boondi’ line the floor of the ramshackle kitchen as more makes it way out of the sizzling cauldron. Preparations are in full swing at the Diamond Sweet House for making a 180-kg laddu, on the eve of Vinayak Chaturthi. Probably the largest laddu placed in palm of the deity, proprietor Mohammed Muazzam Ali proudly upholds the 10-year-old tradition.

“The preparations start four days in advance and require 10 to 12 hours of dedicated labour by four persons to finish on time,” says Muazzam Ali. The laddu requires 40-kg besan, a quintal of sugar and almost 2 kg dry fruits. An annual feature at the Sri Ganesha Pooja Mandali of Vijaya Nagar Colony, it has sparked off competition among other committees to outdo each other. “None of the other pujas in the city can boast of such a large laddu,” declares Ganesh Singh, Vijaya Nagar Colony organising committee member.

Despite renovation works at the sweet shop and Eid celebrations, the laddu which weighs close to 2 quintals along with the steel plate it is placed on, will be completed by Thursday. “We are concentrating on completing the laddu and open our shop only after the offering for Ganesha is ready,” says Muazzam Ali.

The signature laddus are also bought by other Ganesha pooja committees in the locality. As per requirements of the customers, laddus come in sizes of 50 grams, 2 kg, 5 kg and 10 kg. Over the last decade, demand for jumbo-sized laddus has increased, observes Muazzam Ali who inherited the business from his father. The laddu has been growing bigger over the years from its humble beginning of 51 kg. The estimated cost of the this year’s laddu is `20,000.

The process of preparation is unique and carried out in steps to prevent the sweet from disintegrating. After being decorated with dry fruits and silver foil, the laddu is taken out with help of 10 to 15 bearers and loaded onto a vehicle which takes it to the Ganesha temple nearby for blessing the offering. The day after ‘nimmajan’, it is distributed as prasad among residents of the locality. To hold the heavy-weight laddu, the idol is specially constructed by craftsmen in Dhoolpet.

Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/180kg-sweet-offering-for-vinayaka/180389-60-121.html

Huge laddu offered to Lord Ganesha

A huge laddu weighing about 55 Kgs was offered to Lord Ganesha at a temple here on the occasion of Chaturthy festival yesterday. The laddu was offered by a sweet shop owner from Rajasthan, who has settled in the union territory for the last several years. R Vikaram told PTI that the laddu was prepared at his shop using 20 Kgs of sugar, 18 Kgs of oil and 15 Kgs of flour besides other ingredients spending about Rs 15,000.

500 KG laddu presented to Ganesh in Hyderabad

Image via Wikipedia

 A 500 kg laddu costing about Rs 1 lakh was presented on Saturday to a Ganesh idol in Hyderabad on the occasion of Vinayaka Chavithi.

The laddu prepared by Suruchi Foods from East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh was transported in a special vehicle and presented to the 50-feet Khairtabad Ganesh in Hyderabad.

The organisers had to use a crane to put the laddu on Ganesha‘s hand.

Head of Suruchi Foods, Polisetti Mallikarjuna Rao said the laddu was prepared in three days by ten workers.

He said he started preparing the laddu on September 7 at Tappeswaram at a specially erected unit and spent all the time there till the laddu was made.

He said it cost him about Rs 1 lakh to make the laddu but was not bothered about the amount spent.

“I fulfilled the vow to present the heaviest (500 kg) laddu to the tallest Ganesh (Khaitabad)”, he said.

Before bringing the laddu to Hyderabad, it was taken in a procession at Tappeswaram to let people see it.

“We brought the laddu from Tappeswaram to Khairtabad and handed over the same to the organisers”, he said.

Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan and wife offered prayers at Ganesh and appreciated the giant laddu.