Skip to main content

Obsolete Idols


When the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China was launching world’s first 6G satellite, India’s Prime Minister was inaugurating the renovation of Somnath Temple. Temples and statues are India’s PM’s priorities.

Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project was inaugurated by the PM two months before the UP assembly election. Of course, there is no link between the two events. Our PM is above silly sectarian thinking. He is a globe-trotter, we all know. Nay, he is the Messiah of the world, Vishwaguru.

Nevertheless, let us not ignore the fact that he is the chairman of Somnath Temple Trust. He inaugurated the renovation projects of that temple in August 2021 though the temple had been renovated after independence by the then deputy PM Sardar Patel.

Soon after Modiji became PM, he launched the renovation project of the Kedarnath Temple. Now that work is over. You are welcome to Modiji’s Kedarnath.

The grand Ayodhya Temple’s foundation stone was laid by Modiji in Aug 2020. The PM also launched the Char Dham project to connect the holy pilgrimage centres of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.

The latest project is the Mahakal Lok Corridor of Ujjain, inaugurated just a few weeks back.

Revamping of the temples in Kashmir started soon after the abrogation of article 370 in 2019. The Union Minister for Home Affairs, G Kishan Reddy, claimed that 50,000 temples in Kashmir were going to be restored and reopened. Cynics, as usual, allege that the figure is an exaggeration. They say that there are no more than 4000 temples in the entire length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir.

Modiji’s love for temples does not end with the Line of Control. In 2018, he laid the foundation stone for a majestic temple in Abu Dhabi. Next year, he launched a multi-million-dollar renovation project of a 200-year-old temple in Bharain. Hinduism is becoming a global religion, thanks to Modiji. Let us hope that one day Modiji will become an idol in some of those temples in the Arab deserts and beyond.

Modiji has given ideas to the world what kind of statues of his can be erected. He has given to the world the Statue of Unity (world’s tallest so far with its 182 metres), the Hanuman statue in Morbi (where a catastrophe happened recently due to the corruption of the very antinational builder), the Hologram of Subhash Chandra Bose, Statue of Equality in Hyderabad, and Shivaji Statue in Pune.

Envious people like Dr Shashi Tharoor says that Modiji is suffering from acute inferiority complex and that’s why he’s boosting the ego of all Hindus through these projects and constructions. Hindus see themselves as “having been invaded, oppressed, defeated and humiliated for a thousand years,” says Tharoor. “So now they want to hit back and assert themselves.” Let us all feel proud of these statues and temples. Jai Hind.

In the meanwhile, our enemy number one, China [Pak has relinquished that place accepting Modiji’s stature as the Vishwaguru], has been working on science and technology, and infrastructure development including building roads into India (well, almost). That country now holds the largest number of patents related to 5G and 6G. China is way ahead of other countries in 5G and 6G technology and research. China is the global leader for 5G with the largest 5G mobile infrastructure in the world with 1.43 million base stations.

5G and 6G will revolutionise technology in more ways than one can imagine. With 6G, the world won’t be what it is today. It’s not just about the speed of data transfer which, of course, is going to be 1000 Gbps [contrast with 4g’s 100 Mbps]. It’s more about connecting everything and everybody together in an intricate network. You can operate your vacuum cleaner in your Chennai home while you are relaxing in your Delhi hotel after the conference on the role of robots in the classroom or something like that.

China has not stopped with 6G. It has built some marvels like the Sichuan-Tibet railway, South-North Water Transfer Project, Yantai-Dalian Underwater Tunnel (90 km), and the Taiwan Strait Tunnel.

But, in the end, that is a godless country. What good is it then? We have our abundant gods and a lot of temples. Thank God.

PS. Written in response to Indispire prompt: China is moving towards 6G digital technology. India is still obsessed with statues and temples. Don't forget that we were the 70th country to switch to 5G and that too only in a few cities. Aren't we being given obsolete idols to worship? #ObsoleteIdols

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanNovember 5, 2022 at 5:38 PM

    Hari OM
    ...ah but don't forget that once one has reached moksha, one is in communication with the entire universe... 🙃 Of course, it is but one in in ten million of us who can attain that level of connection. While at least one in a thousand will be able to afford 6G. And share it around.

    I know so many who are in fear of China's rise - but forget that so much of what they use in everyday life already is down to Chinese manufacture and low cost tech. Ignore this at peril... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalNovember 5, 2022 at 5:51 PM

      China's rise is intimidating not because of their progress in sc & tech but their greed for territories. They trespass too much.

      I like your humor on the cosmic communication that Modi is offering us 😊

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
18 comments
Read more

The RSS does not exist

An organisation that has 80,000 branches in India does not exist legally in any document. This is the cover story of The Caravan this month. By the way, The Caravan is one of the very few publications that still continues to exist in spite of being overtly critical of Narendra Modi and his Sangh Parivar. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is not registered as an organisation under any of the usual Indian registration laws such as the Societies Registration Act or as a trust or company. It functions as an unregistered voluntary organisation, though it is arguably the largest public organisation in the country. This situation makes the organisation absolutely unaccountable to anyone, argues The Caravan . The RSS is not legally required to file annual returns to the Tax department or disclose its financial details publicly though it deals with thousands of crores of rupees every year especially after Modi became the Prime Minister of the country. The membership of the organisat...
13 comments
Read more

No Problems Only Opportunities

You’ve probably heard this joke. A young man walked into his office one morning and found a beautiful young lady sitting in his chair. He called the MD and said, “Sir, I have a problem.” The MD replied, “Don’t you know our company’s motto, young man? No Problems, Only Opportunities .” When Suchita of The Blogchatter sent me a mail with the topic of this week’s blog hop –  - the first thing that came to my mind was the above joke. I know many people – too many, in fact – who went through terrible problems. My own life was a series of problems in none of which was there the consolation of any beautiful woman. One essential lesson I learnt from life is that life is a series of problems. You solve one and then arises the next one. Now I have reached an age when problems are no more problems: they are life itself. If you ask me what was the biggest problem I ever dealt with, it was my last years in Shillong. I was a lecturer in a college drawing a fat salary stipulated by the U...
15 comments
Read more

Akbar the Brutal

When I was in school, I was taught that Akbar was a great emperor. ‘Akbar the Great’ was the title of the lesson on him. That was how the emperor was described in history in those days. Now the grade 8 history textbook calls that same man Akbar the Brutal . A lot of efforts are being made to rewrite India’s history. All Muslims are evil in that new history. In fact, everyone except Hindus stands the chance of being accused of much evil. It is sheer coincidence that I started reading Manu S Pillai’s new book, Gods, Guns and Missionaries , soon after reading newspaper reports about the alleged brutality of the Mughals. In the very first chapter, Pillai presents Akbar as a serious spiritual seeker as well as advocate of religious tolerance. Pillai’s knowledge of history is vast if the 218 pages of Notes in the book are any indication. Chapter 1, titled ‘Monsters and Missionaries’, starts with three Jesuit missionaries led by Rodolfo Acquaviva visiting Akbar on a personal invitatio...
8 comments
Read more