Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Reddy shocker

Can news about huge money be shocking? It was indeed to me, when news about a diamond-studded golden crown to Tirupati temple broke.

Janardhan Reddy, Karnataka’s tourism minister, donated the crown worth Rs 42 crore to Tirupati temple today. Apart from 70,000 diamonds weighing 4,000 carats embedded in it, the 2.5-foot, 20-kg crown has a huge 890-carat emerald engraved inside it which alone costs around Rs 10 crore!

The Reddy brothers, who are the mining barons of Karnataka, have made news on lavish spending even before. It was not more than a month ago that we were awed by the news of the Rs 20-crore wedding of health minister Sriramulu’s nephew. The story became the lead in one of the pages of our newspaper. The mammoth ceremony, attended by 40,000 people saw four helicopters ferrying VIPs from Bangalore to Bellary. The palace-like wedding arena was built on an 8-acre land. The wedding hall had 500 airconditioners and more than 200 chefs were at work to feed the gathering.

Right below the news item, we had carried another news which told the story of a daily-wage earner couple who were struggling to find Rs 1.5 lakh for the surgery of their one-year-old daughter whose leg was crushed by a lorry.

I found it really taxing to comprehend the big amounts the Bellary brothers lavished on a temple offering and the wedding of a family member. I would not even make a simple offering of Rs 10 at a temple. Not that I’m an atheist. I would rather give the money to an ailing old man or woman sitting in front of the temple, who lives at the mercy of devotees. I feel God will be pleased by that act than offering some flowers or a gold ornament for him. Of course, I will get flowers too from a kid who is forced to sell it at temple in the evenings to aid her education.

It is of course one’s own personal choice how they should spend their money. But I wish people would not be really insensitive to their surroundings too when they do so.

4 comments:

Preetham Sai P.V. said...

Did you feel the same, like donating to poor, when you saw Vijay Mallya arranging lavish booze parties? I am sure not! :-)) At least, Reddy brothers have donated it to GOD! Its their way of devotion.. Respect it!

raindrops said...

Preetham, Thanks for visiting my blog. But I feel it was not right for you to say that you were sure that I didn't feel the same when Mallya hosted booze parties. How can u be sure about what I felt?

Debanish Achom said...

It's not only the Reddy brothers. Even CM BSY has encouraged such things from time to time. How he treats the mujrai department like God himself, is an example. Now the Reddys are trying to topple BSY after all the money BSY accepted from the Reddys. So much for money!

Reshmi said...

Hearing the mentioned news for the first time and its baffling!

I too don't put offerings in temples, but give the money to old people on temple steps. Just pick out one person and give him/her 10-20 ruppees so that they can afford a meal. Not sure if that helps, but it is just a small gesture from my end.

-Reshmi