The giant vegetable ‘pillaiyar’ at Venkata Narayana Road, T Nagar caught my attention the other day as I drove by. I stopped to take photographs and was lucky to meet the person behind it.

Weighing 1008 kgs, the giant Vinayaka was made out of 27 types of vegetables by the Vinayaka Chaturthi Vizha Kuzhu, an Hindu organization, formed as a part of the BJP. Santhanam, the president of the group was all praise for the 16 member team that was part of building this giant structure, the main artisans being Selvam and Kutti Ganesan.
This is the 9th year in a row that this group has built a giant Ganesha for this festival, the previous years’ statues built out of coconuts, fruits and once even ‘arugam pul’. The concept of vegetables this time was to highlight the hike in vegetable prices.
Santhanam spoke animatedly about the group and its activities. It started as a Hindu movement, being an off-shoot of the BJP, but was soon involved in social work as well. Santhanam is concerned about youngsters not being spiritual and wants to do something about it through the group.

Santhanam wants to do something even bigger and better for next year’s Vinayakar Chaturthi. Well, with such a brilliant team and regular price hikes, we are sure they would definitely come up with something bigger and better!