God for Sale

After almost a year of keeping away from Trivandrum, I am finally back home. Its my home town... but there is something about this place that just makes me feel like I did when I was a teenager... and I'll give anything to shake off that feeling! Anyway, thats a story for another time (maybe).

We moved to this house in Trivandrum when I was nearly just 3 yrs old. And from that time, there was a temple near the house. This time, I saw some hoardings in the road about the temple management trust and asking for donations and the sort... As far back as I can remember, this temple was run by a family of priests who stay right next to the temple. So I was curious about how they became so management savvy and started a trust... So here is the story I got from my dad...

Apparently, there were some renovations happening to the temple. The temple has some considerable property - part of it is the actual temple and rest of it has a small ritual ground and a small podium for weddings and the sort. One fine day, a bunch of people (few of the rich spoilt brats in the area and a few trade union members and some local goons) together took over the podium and the land surrouding it (except for the place where the temple is). They claimed that they are the management trust that runs the temple and this property belongs to the trust and not the priests!!! The whole ruckus went to court. And these "upstanding" gentlemen coerced the priests into an out of court settlement. The trust will pay the priests a meager amount for the property and a seat in the trust for one of the priests. And the priests will hand over the entire property and temple administration to the trust!!

Nothing so shocking about it... this happens in most property disputes. The fact that bugs me most is something else - the trust is now "demanding" donations from the public staying in the locality in the name of the temple and going to use that money to pay off the settlement amount!!! And the people are actually paying the money! Now, isnt that convenient??? We are practically just gifting them the temple!!!! Everyone living in this vicinity understand very well that a good percentage of any donation they ever make to this temple from now on will go directly into the pocket of the trustees... (With the priets running the temple, the percentages would have been lot lesser) And this money (looking at the profile of the trustees) will definitely go for booze and other such indulgences.

Now this is good business... some of us are real suckers for religion. And others have become so passive that they will do anything to avoid a conflict. Everyone just says that this is how things work here... Escapism at its best! A bunch of goons are gonna make a really good living selling God!!! The things we do in the name of society!!!

PS 1: I voiced my opinion to my parents about this and asked them not to pay anything to these people. And as expected, I got an earful from mom...!

PS 2: As much as I love my parents, I can't wait to get out of this city... now, isnt that also a form a escapism??!

PS 3: Whatever!!!