And you thought India was poor!
Please watch the images cycle throughThese are pictures of a temple dedicated to Mahalakshmi - the goddess of wealth (sic!). It is call Sripuram and is made of more than a ton of pure gold which will glitter and gleam under the bright sun of Malaikodi, about 6 km from Vellore in north Tamil Nadu. On August 24 it will be consecrated by the Sri Narayani Peetam (a "godly" organization) headed by a 31-year-old godman who calls himself Narayani Amma. Devotees call the temple 'one of the wonders of the world'. More than 400 gold and coppersmiths from the Thirupath Thirumala Devasthanam are said to have worked for six years to craft the Rs 600-crore gold temple located on 55,000 sq ft of land on a 100-acre plot. According to official sources, the gold bars were purchased through the Reserve Bank of India in 'a transparent manner.' (Read: not through the "black market", er Thank God)
This is a good example of how "God-men" are completely scamming poor people in India (and elsewhere in the world too). The problem is that in India a lot of poor people give up their life savings or even borrow money to give to this.
The maid who washes the dishes for us is apparently unable to conceive. So she and her husband are going to pay a "God-man" Rs. 5,000 (about $120), which is 10 times her monthly pay (her husband mercifully works and does not drink - a rarity). She refuses to go to a doctor, despite my wife's repeated attempts to take her.
If this couple lived in America, they would no doubt have voted for Bush (no I am not a Democrat, I am an Independent).
posted by Anil Gupte at 8:36 AM
2 Comments:
Another head-shaker from the land of paradox!
I wonder...is it really a scam if the people who are willing and freely give amounts 10 times their monthly wages, actually hold a belief that their contribution and god-man's supposed connections with the "powers that be", will deliver what they want and need?
I don't think anyone has the power over someone to change their belief, in spite of all rational that would demonstrate otherwise.
Give the money to the doctor or to the god-man...either way it's personal choice. Who am I to think I even should try to convince them otherwise?
As an American with a certain percentage of Indian melden in by osmosis, I had to chuckle reading your post today along with yesterdays. I thought if this amount of gold was standing in the US, it would need armed guards with bazookas, dogs, and tanks to keep the nice, non-aggressive Americans from hauling it away. I need to think more about the aggression of Indians. Maybe you need to spend more time in New York City(!)to taste a little American aggression.
We certainly live much more CAREFUL lives here in the US. I still get amazed in India watching a two year old on the side of the road being cared for by a three year old...and somehow they seem to survive!
I love reading your thoughts!
You have chosen a topic very close to my heart. India is a very rich country with some poor people. The definitions of poor are as many as the poor!
Except for the totally derelict, each Indian family will have some amount of silver and quite a large number of them, some gold. This is likely to be in the form of ornaments or vessels or even coins/ingots etc.
This has been going on for centuries and every rural household will tell you of stories of buried treasures coming to light almost on a daily basis.
Poverty is of a different dimension in India and it is now coming to assume different tones of aggression thanks to the spread of information with wireless and locally generated powered gadgets. Don't let anyone else misguide you. The naxalite movement is a gathering storm that is likely to have a major impact in rural India in the not too distant future. It already has impacted millions in some parts of the country, and like HIV/AIDS, is rapidly gaining propularity thanks to the totally insensitive middle classes who control the levers of power and patronage.
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