Commercial Divinity

I went to Tirupati a little while back. This is a place that seems to have perfected the art of commercializing devotion. The Sudarsan system of issuing tokens to devotees seems to be a nice way of reducing their hassles, but what about the rest of the things? Previously the famed Tirupati Laddoo could be bought at the counters according to the amount you paid. Now it is no longer that. I took a Rs 300 ticket (I think). At first glance this might seem a not-so-small amount. It took me three or so hours to have a fleeting darshan of the Lord, after I paid Rs 300. 

I had a solid-looking ring on my finger and a gold chain because of which I was probably looking quite prosperous. One of the personnel there called me to a side, showed me what is called the Ranganathamandapam (or Rangamandapam, I am not sure). When Srirangam (Tamil Nadu) was attacked by some Muslim invaders the idol was moved here and worshipped, hence the name. I gave him some money, and he gave me a shocked expression at the amount. I escaped saying I was a student or something like that. I got a shortcut entry into the temple also. So I was lucky that day. Coming back to the laddoo, I was entitles to get two of them because of my ticket. I was sitting in the open arena outside the temple complex when a kid approached me muttering laddoo laddoo the way a guy selling black tickets approaches you. This is the state today. It is not possible to buy them legally. But if you pay an inflated price to the touts you can get as many as you want. Is this possible without any assistance from the temple authorities? 

In another instance that I heard, apparently one guy has booked all available slots of a particular seva (a ritual) and is selling them in black. The cost of one seva recently ran into many thousands. Is this possible without the collusion of the authorities and the black marketers (for lack of a better word)? I was travelling in by taxi today when I passed in front of a small temple. A rich guy walking on the road, a pauper on the road, a middle class guy in a bus or an HNI in a Mercedes S-Class all bow to the same God. So is this separation and segregation on the basis of money paid fair? Would God want this?

Moving on, Amitabh Bachchan is not attending the IIFA function. Many if not all Tamil-industry people seem to have backed out. Is this the right thing to do? The country is coming out of civil war after 30 years and this is an important milestone in that direction. Do we really want to do this because of alleged genocide? Did we not have IIFA in Macau which is a Chinese territory? Is China famous for its spectacular human rights record? If genocide has indeed taken place, let the guilty be punished. I somehow do not feel what is happening is not proper. By the way, Raavan is supposed to be based on the Ramayana. The female lead is kidnapped by a tribal and from what I have read she starts responding to him! I believe many in Tamil Nadu worship Ravana. But what weird twist is this?

Also, the BCCI is not sending a team to the Asian Games as the team has "other commitments". I believe this is the first time that the sport is featuring in the Asian Games. It should well known how commercial minded the BCCI is. Can we have at least a token team please, for participation's sake? Asia's second most populous nation, and the world's most cricket-crazy nation is not sending a team?