I don’t want to write about it
again and again. But there are so many flaws in it and weather I want or not
but I bump into those flaws frequently and it forces me to write. FLAWS – not
in religions but in us, how we follow it.
My recent trip with my parents to
McleodGanj, started on a religious note and ended on one. And unfortunately both
experiences were not that good. On the way mom saw the signboard saying, Maa
Chintpurni Mandir – 2 Km’s towards left. And obviously she was keen to visit. And
when we reached there, needless to say, there also the commonest scene of Temple’s
prevails – shopkeepers forcing you to buy Prasad from their shops, plenty of
Beggers almost reaching your pockets to snatch some money, even the
trans-genders; but that’s not the reason I am writing this.
Part – 1
As we reached the main Temple for
offering our prayers, the Pujari reached out to hold my Prasad to offer it to
the statue of Mata chintpurni. There were five Pujaris cramped in that small
room; and we had to make efforts to have a look of the statue. But I was happy
as it seemed that the Pujari was making personal efforts for us to reach in
front and pray together as a family unlike other big temples where the pujari’s
itself push you away to make room for the others to come. But that happiness of
mine, was short-lived. He took a minute or two for the offerings and then asked
us to come to the side gate to get the Prasad. That’s where the story began.
The pujari asked us to bow to the
banyan tree branch and we obliged, he gave me the Prasad and instructed us,
where to place the Chunari and what to do with the other things. He continued
his instructions looking strangely at each one of us; my Dad gauzed his
intentions and he pulled out a fifty rupee note to give it to him. To this his
eyes opened wide in surprise and my Dad put that fifty rupee note back in his
pocket to pull out a rupee hundred note. As he handed it to the Pujari, he
started begging for more ‘panch log hai hum sardar ji, iss se kya hoga’. I was
stunned by his behavior. Seriously, are we in a Temple? Are you a Pujari?
Furious I ran out battling the small beggars and Hizras asking for money at
every step we took.
Part – 2
On our return journey, we planned
to stop at Anandpur sahib to offer our prayers to the ‘birth place of Khalsa’.
My prime motive was to visit the ‘Virasat-e-Khalsa’ a newly built museum
dedicated to Sikh history; which the Akali government boosted about that it
will be an eighth wonder of the world. I was really impressed by the architecture
of the building. After witnessing the architectural marvel you will enter the
building thinking of a joy ride to the history, but the miss-management and
arrogant & un-friendly staff will spoil your mood. Fabulous building it
was, but so poorly utilized. Billions have been spent on the project, and they
don’t have few hundred rupees to repair the faulty audio guides. You will have
to wait for ‘don’t know how much’ time to receive the audio guides which were
in use by the people ahead of you. When they finish the tour, their audio
guides will come to you. There were thousands of the devices lying there, but
all faulty. Blame it on the management or the illiterate people who destroyed
them knowingly or un-knowingly; the later one was more obvious.
The technology was at its poorest
level, one of the animations of the Golden Temple displayed there was so poor
that even school children will hang their head with shame. The Audio-Visual of
the Sikh history which I thought will be the high-light of the place was not
working properly; two of the five projector screens were out of order and the
rest three were not clear. We were pushed further by the crowd who had no
interest in this poorly displayed show. We moved towards the 3-D paintings and
cut-outs of the history in other rooms but that too were far behind the present
technological standards. Adding to that,
the staff was not cooperative in fact very egotistical and rude. At the exit gates
the girl on duty literally fought with me when I just asked her to where to
place the audio device.
From the condition of the
services just in few months of its operation I can just say we Indians don’t
know the value of periodic maintenance. In abundance public money is spent on
the project and then it was left on its own mercy. Billions of dollars went
down the drain.
Please for GOD-sake stop selling
out RELIGION.
