Thought Shots

I had the chance to listen to a special edition of  Mann ki Baat  last night. It featured the US President Barack Obama with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I had never heard  Mann ki Baat  before but this was a historic broadcast. The two leaders opened their hearts to the world in this 30 minute interaction where they answered interesting and intimate questions posed by the people of India. Listening to the two leaders brought a smile to my lips and also kindled a lot of hope about what truly is possible. A man asked Modi about an old photograph of his clicked outside the White House when he went there as a tourist and what touched him on his visit to the US in September last year. Modi answered, "It is true that when I first went to America, I was not lucky enough to visit the White House. There is an iron fence far from the White House. We stood outside the fence and took a photograph. White House is visible in the background. Now that I have become Prime Minis

It is ironical that having written a critique on faith about a week back, I have ended up visiting the largest temple in the world. I think that is because India is surrounded by so much faith, spirituality and religion that you can never escape it entirely wherever you may get away to over here. And I don't mean that in a bad way. The critique last week was related with the brouhaha made by some small-time hooligans over the movie 'PK'. And it would be right to say that the previous blog was critical more of the false faith propogated by some black sheep saints than of faith itself. Coming back to what I was writing this blog about, it was a truly uplifting experience to visit the Akshardham Temple. The temple is a tribute to SwamiNarayan who was born in Chappaiya, Uttar Pradesh, India in 1781. He is considered an incarnation of Narayana by his followers. And the way his life-story has been described through the exhibitions and shows in the temple is nothing less than