Another golden temple in Tamilnadu

Sri Puram is situated at the foot of a small range of green hills 6 km east of Vellore in a place known as "Malaikodi" which means "the corner of the hills."

Pronounced "Malai Kodi" (the "o" being stressed as in the word "code"), the second word also stands for crores in Tamil.

Every little detail about the shrine is opulent starting with the numerical connotation of the name. At least a sum more than Rs.300 crores has been spent in the creating of the temple – in a time span slightly less than six years.

Its consecration has been completed on a blustery Friday morning immediately after the inauspicious hour of "Rahu Kaalam" during the best period of the day – during "Amritha Yogam" with the waters brought from various rivers of the nation.

But the Sri Puram temple (situated 150 km west of Chennai) is a "secular" affair since it has 300 quotations from the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran featured on its star-shaped walkways that culminate at its golden centre whose steps are paved with expensive polished slabs of black and multi-coloured granite. On sq ft of each is priced at Rs.150 per sq ft according to sources in the trade.

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What a freaking waste of money.

Actually, if you look at the economics, it is a damned good return on investment. Want to bet the donations to the temple will easily outstrip the expense incurred in construction within a couple of years? No industrial project would recover that money in the same amount of time.

True...... but what I mean by waste of money is that 300 crores could have been much better used elsewhere.