IANS/Yeola, Maharashtra

James Bond’s rival had a golden gun. This school dropout is acquiring a golden shirt that weighs 4kg and costs a staggering Rs13mn ($214,000).
But then, Pankaj Parakh, a school dropout who made his fortune from his garment fabrication business and who is a politician to boot, is no stranger to opulence. Whenever he ventures on to the streets in Yeola, 260km from Mumbai, women stare at him and men glare at him as he is adorned with gold jewellery weighing at least 3kg.
Now, at a special function on his 45th birthday today, Parakh will wear his latest acquisition at a huge gathering that will include the likes of Maharashtra Tourism Minister Chhagan Bhujbal of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and around a dozen legislators of different parties and celebreties.
With the shirt and its seven gold buttons, Parakh hopes to enter the Guinness World Records and the Limca Book of Records.
“Gold has always fascinated me since I was five years old. Over the years, I have become passionate about this royal metal. I have got this special shirt stitched to mark my 45th birthday this Friday,” Parakh said.
The shirt was designed by Bafna Jewellers of Nashik, 85km away, and meticulously executed by Shanti Jewellers at Parel in Mumbai, where a team of around 20 select artisans spent 3,200 hours over the past two months to ‘stitch’ it.
Parakh, who took delivery in Mumbai, offered a sneak peek of his treasured shirt and even wore it when he visited the city’s famed Siddhivinayak Temple.
He said the gold used in the shirt is of 18-22 carat purity, without any mixture of any other metals - and the entire deal is properly accounted for.
Though made of gold, the shirt is fully flexible and comfortable, absolutely smooth and harmless and with a thin cloth lining the inside to avoid rubbing the body.
Besides, it can be washed and hung-dried, and if torn or damaged, can be repaired and modified with a lifetime guarantee of durability, Parakh said.
Recounting his love for gold, Parakh said in his youth, he could not afford much as he left school after Class 8 and plunged into the family garments business in Yeola, a town of some 60,000.
“Yet, for my marriage 23 years ago, many guests considered me an embarrassment as I sported more gold than the bride,” he recalled. Over the years, after taking care of all his family’s needs Parakh likes to plough back his excess income to finance his passion for acquiring a gilded edge.
“My family is hardly impressed or interested in my love for gold. They just ignore and accept it as a part of domestic life. But the rest of my extended family thinks I am weird,” Parakh laughed.