Thursday, November 10, 2011

Of RaOne , temples and marekting ..

Yes , the deep connecting thread between RaOne ; Vellore’s golden temple and life .
( so much for the opening line suspense . Chetan bhagat would’ve been so proud ! )

I have said this before , I’ll say it again .
Shahrukh Khan is THE best salesman India has ( we’ll omit any discussion about his acting skills for now )
He’s ruthless ,smart ,manipulative , swift with the tongue , dosen’t give a damn about being a “superstar” and will go to any limits to sell whatever he wants to .
I was in Vellore this diwali .. and while surfing through channels , I chance upon SRK on JAYA TV !
Talking on and on about how he loves can’t wait to work in tamil movies , and how the most talented people come from this state and how Rajni sir is the biggest superstar we have .
And how he wanted to pay a ‘tribute’ to Chitti in the movie !

Needless to say , the movie turned out to be ‘below expectations’  ( if you carried your brains into the theatre , that is )
The so called ‘tribute’ turned out to be a 1 minute something scene .
North Indians found it funny ( cumon …there was a vaccum after the Rajni jokes went out of fashion ) and bought tickets …
South Indians flocked to the theatre ( at least the first weekend ) to see him and money flowed in ..
Who cares if the movie was C.R.A.P ?
Selling tactic ? You bet my gluteus maximus !

Around the same time , I went for a Vellore sightseeing tour .
Have you ever been to the Jalakanteswarar temple in Vellore fort ? Do go .
It stands old ,strong and proud .The inner sanctrum so serene , lined by huge statues , the central ‘shivling’ and an aura of inner peace .
It smells of stones so ancient that you can easily imagine Tamil kings praying homage to Siva and ‘devdasis’ dancing in those halls .

On the other hand have you been to the Golden ‘temple’ ?
If you even happen to go there .. carry your lunch box/music system/Frisbees or whatever you usually carry to resorts or picnic places .
The place is ( forgive my lack of diplomacy ) an obscenity in the name of temple !
Flowing gardens , music and mantras playing , huge adorned pillars , ticket counters , hospitality that can beat Air India’s air hostesses any day .
Chuck that … a huge inner temple entirely GOLD plated !
( It was like , Bappi Lahiri’s dream house come true )
But was it a temple ? no .

Then again , who cares ?
The guy who runs it has his photos everywhere . People come , donate money , gape in wonder and put their faith in the self proclaimed incarnation ‘gruruji’ and the Goddess .


My great-grandmom used to pray in her ‘pooja ghar’ . It was nothing but one half of a store-room with old faded photos of Gods and a few bronze statues .
But the way I felt God in there , I’ve never felt it anywhere else .

Bottom line ?
Is that what we have come to ?
Publicity ? Show off ? Materialism at it’s pinnacle ?
Maybe it’s time God should hire a publicity or HR agent .

Before people ‘invest’ incorrectly In faith ..



6 comments:

  1. everything is super commercial these days-there will be a day when you can market to get into a relationship and then market the relationship!

    and shahrukh and salman have gone made-if money making is THE only thing on their mind...god help bollywood!

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  2. Lol on a lot of things especially opening lines and Bappi Lehri's dream house reference...
    So true...
    there is no subtleness left in lot of such places these days n yeah of course in people as well...guess that's a common point in SRK and golden temple reference?
    I really hope a place of worship does not become a roaring bin-ness, atleast leave GOD alone...!!!

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  3. We, as Indians, have more attachment to Gold than God. No wonder they have Gold in temples and not God. You bet about granny's story....My granny's lil temple is where I found peace too....Now, I can pray in toilet too....does it really matter where I want to remember the one?

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    Replies
    1. It's also believed that as along as you believe in God, that's all that really matters

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  4. From this amount of information, I believe that nothing can ever replace the true sacred place of worship which is the Golden Temple in Amristar which histically is called Harminder Sahib. The Gurus built the Golden Temple be unique and different not to be OBESESSIVE over gold. It's beuty is amazing and truly special. In Sikhism trying to replace a sacred place of worship from anyone's point of view is truly insulting.

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