Oh GOD .. and the industry ... Part 2:

After another 2 hours I am sitting in a big hall with numerous chairs and an iron gate . In short , it again makes us the monkey in the cage. Here in this hall are seated over 120 pilgrims and the entire building houses over 30 such halls. Exhausted pilgrims continue to buy the fluids being served. I kept seated and continued to think about the industry. 30 halls … 120 pilgrims in one … that makes it 3600 pilgrims every 30 minutes and over 50000 people in the entire darshan time a day. Well this could have easily passed through my subconscious had the temple authority not charged 300 INR from every single soul out there. So in that way, this part of the pilgrimage adds 150 lakhs INR to the treasury every day. If we consider the entire year, it amounts to 122 million USD per year. This is just a part of the 75000 pilgrims who visit the temple every day. The others who could not afford 300 INR for a visit either pay a sum of 50 INR or if it is for free, one is required to stand in the queue for around 35 hours. The number of pilgrims and the waiting time shoots up during the occasions. Other activities out here include the sale of Laddus . On an average every person affords 4 laddus for 100 INR. That adds another 6 million USD to the revenue of this place. Other than this people love to donate in here. A golden Hundi at the gate of the main temple fills up the treasury with a maximum of 2.5 crore INR a day. The Iron gate screeches. Everybody starts to rush out. Scattered all over are the empty bottles, tetra packs and the coffee cups. Whoa !! The people who vendor the edible stuffs out here can easily make a fortune. I rush along with the crowd. At long the only thing visible to me are three long queues coming from three different directions to merge into one. There is no way I could pass this with an absent mind. The god helps all. In here he helps over 12 lakh people residing over 450 square kilometre of area. And with a revenue higher than many of the small and medium scale enterprises Tirupati Devasthanam is the richest and the most visited place of worship in the world. So god will help me push my way along and get a glimpse of the holy Lord Venkateshwara. Gear up and cheer “Govinda … Govinda “