source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6503627.cms?prtpage=1
MUMBAI, INDIA, September 6, 2010: Record prices have done little to dim the popularity of silver and gold offerings to Ganesha around the Chaturhi festival.
Last Friday, a prominent resident of Veera Desai Road chose quiet anonymity even as his spectacular offering of a 35 lb. silver chhatra (umbrella) was unveiled at the Andhericha Raja Ganpati at Azad Nagar. The donor, a leading developer in the western suburbs who had his prayers answered, said, “I had made a pledge and I had to redeem it. Costs don’t matter. After all, it is He who gives.”
The richest Ganesha mandals in the city confirm that despite a giddy spiral in bullion prices, offerings of gold and silver continue to break previous records. “We have never needed to purchase golden or silver ornaments and embellishments for our temple’s Ganapati,” says Uday Salian of Andhericha Raja. “From necklaces and earrings to garlands, models of houses, babies and body parts, our God receives a cache of offerings in precious metal.”