A laddu mirroring the changing fortunes of Balapur

When Kolanu Mohan Reddy, a farmer from Balapur village on the outskirts of Hyderabad, paid ₹450 for the laddu kept near the Ganesh idol in the village, he never imagined he was starting a trend. With ₹450, he could have purchased about a gram of gold, which was trading at ₹4,598 per 10 grams in 1994. Instead, he bought the prasadam, distributed it among his friends and went to his farmland, where he sprinkled a part of it for good luck. And just like that, the family continued the tradition of bidding for and purchasing the laddu on the last day before the idol was taken in procession to Hussainsagar lake.