The 4,000-kg ‘Maha Laddu’ made to fit in the hand of the tallest Ganesh idol in Khairatabad has left from home-cum-factory at Tapeswaram village near Mandapeta in East Godavari district on Sunday amidst bhajans and slogan shouting.
A crane was pressed into service to lift the ‘Maha Laddu’ and the entire village witnessed the process, which took more than two hours. The proprietor of Sri Bhakthanjaneya Suruchi Foods, Polisetty Mallibabu, who was in Ganesh Deeksha to prepare the laddu along with fifteen of his factory workers for the last four days, joined the pooja along with other villagers, just before lifting the laddu.
The laddu would be handed over to the Khairatabad pandal organisers in the presence of E.S.L. Narasimhan and several Ministers on Monday morning, said Mr. Mallibabu.
Khairatabad Ganesh, considered the tallest idol in South India, is made to hold a laddu of considerable size in his left hand during Ganesh festival. Sri Bhakthanjaneya Suruchi Foods, a sweets and savouries maker from Tapeswaram in East Godavari district, makes this laddu every year. The amount of ingredients used to make this giant laddu is: 200 kg of cashew nuts, badam- 100 kg, yellow camphor- 20 kg, cardamom- 50 kg, Bengal gram- 1,000 kg, ghee- 900 kg and 1,600 kilos of sugar.
In 2010, Sri Bhakthanjaneya’s Suruchi Foods offered a laddu weighing 500 kg; 2,400 kg laddu in 2011 and 3,500 kg laddu the previous year.