Pune: 83-Year-Old Wanowrie Woman Compiles Thousands Of Ganesha Pictures Across 18 Albums
Pune: 83-Year-Old Wanowrie Woman Compiles Thousands Of Ganesha Pictures Across 18 Albums
Pune, September 6, 2025: Turning a childhood hobby into a lifelong passion, 83-year-old Asha Shinde from Wanawadi has compiled 18 albums containing thousands of Lord Ganesha images collected from newspapers, weeklies, and magazines. What began as a pastime during her school days has blossomed into a unique and cherished pursuit in her later years.
Even at this age, Shinde continues her collection enthusiastically. Alongside writing, reading, theatre, singing, painting, and rangoli, she has always enjoyed cutting out clippings of articles, quotes, and useful information from periodicals. With her children, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren settled abroad, she lives in Pune with her husband, Dattaji. Being a senior citizen, she could not step out during Ganeshotsav celebrations, so the published images of Lord Ganesha in newspapers became her way of experiencing the festival.
One particular article titled “Roop Ganeshache” by Mandar Lavate and drawings of Lord Ganesha by Sachin Joshi deeply moved her. This inspired her to start pasting such clippings into a small album. Soon, the hobby expanded, bringing her immense joy and mental satisfaction, especially when she began her collection at the age of 66.
So far, Shinde has compiled 17 albums containing thousands of Ganesha images, details of temples, and information about Ganeshotsav celebrations abroad. This year, she is preparing her 18th album dedicated to Lord Ganesha. Earlier, she gifted 16 albums to the Indira Atre Reading Hall at Rasta Peth, where librarian Prasad Bhadsawale displayed them for readers.
Despite facing challenges in married life and setting aside her hobbies for 35 years due to family and professional responsibilities, her interest in social service reignited her passion in 1998. She began contributing to the Readers’ Correspondence section in newspapers, which encouraged her further. Over time, she also expanded her clipping collections to include topics like cleanliness, public transport, housing societies, inspirational thoughts, sports, health, plastic, and waste management.
For Shinde, what started as a simple collection of Ganesha images has become a priceless legacy of devotion, discipline, and dedication.
