the golden man of Pune and the costliest saree

The glitter of yellow metal lures so much ~ women buy a lot of gold and lots of sarees !!

Pimpri-Chinchwad is a city in the Pune district in the state of Maharashtra, India. It consists of the twin towns of Pimpri and Chinchwad which are governed by a common municipal body.  Seema Phuge, is the corporator from this area representing  NCP of Sharad Pawar. 

Phuge is in news ~ because the corporator’s husband Datta Phuge acquired a shirt made of 3.5 kg of gold worth  Rs 1.27 crore.   Popularly known as the ‘goldman’ in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Dattatray Phuge’s novel attempt to grab eyeballs paid off, when the 40-year-old shot to fame for possessing the most expensive fashion statement this city has seen in a long time. Phuge was spotted wearing a shirt made up of 22-carat pure gold which is worth a whopping Rs1.27crore. The shirt weighing 3.5 kg includes a belt of 325 grams. Known for his penchant for gold, he self admittedly wears gold ornaments weighing 7 kg in his daily life. It pieces together 14,000 gold spangles interwoven with 1 lakh rings on a specially imported white velvet cloth. It features six Swavorski crystals as buttons. The shirt has been designed by city-based Ranka Jewellers, who employed 15 skilled artisans from West Bengal. They laboured for 18 hours everyday over two weeks for completing the piece.

The Gold Man is quoted as saying that he was attracted to gold since he was 20 and has acquired gold ornaments since then. Though Seema doesn’t share his yearning for gold jewellery, she sees his craze for gold as a wise investment. Phuge, who has a significant land bank and runs a co-operative credit society and non-banking financial institutions, said his jeweller suggested the dazzling idea of a gold shirt.  He says he has no passion passion for high-end luxury vehicles like Audi or purchasing something else that is fancy but would like to invest in solid gold.    Some other reports state that in effect, this “10 kilogram gold man” — as 42-year-old Phuge prefers to call himself — is being valued in terms of money at around Rs3.25 crore of which the golden shirt — his new possession — is a part and it is worth Rs1.27 crore.

Despite being a finance professional now, Phuge has an ambition of becoming a Member of Parliament (MP) someday in the future. “If NCP fields me as a candidate in the forthcoming Lok Sabha poll from Shirur constituency in Pune district, I am more than willing to contest,” Phuge said in a matter-of-fact manner.

Relatively speaking, sarees are not so expensive.  The costliest saree based on web search is one with Navratna stones and gold embroidery-  made by Chennai Silks described as the 'Vivaah Patu', - valued  at Rs.40 lakh that  entered the Guinness World Records.  That was a silk sari made up of navratna stones like diamond, emerald, ruby, yellow sapphire, sapphire, topaz, pearl, cat's eye and coral. It also has embroidered in metals such as gold, platinum and silver. 

It is only  the 5^th day of the month and sure the bank balance would still be strong ~ are you heading for Chennai silks or other silk shops of T Nagar like Pothys, Kumaran, Nalli or……. Saravana !!!!!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

News courtesy : New Indian Express.com and photos courtesy www.dailymail.co.uk