Author Topic: Can Puttaparthi Survive? (Read 890 times)

B̲l̲i̲n̲g̲ · « **on:** June 04, 2011, 12:49:01 AM »

The banana seller stares at the lone passer-by. "In three days I've sold just three bananas. Last year in Puttaparthi I used to sell two baskets every day. How will I make a living?" asks a despondent Lakshmamma, a vendor outside Prasanthi Nilayam, Sathya Sai Baba's ashram in the town. Puttaparthi is not a ghost town. Not yet. But there are telling signs everywhere. The bustling town in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh has all but come to a standstill. The locked gates at the private airport, the empty cavern that was once an active bus stop, the taxi and autorickshaw stand with vehicles but no passengers and the all-pervasive and omnipresent gloom in the town bear a silent testimony to the travails of the residents struggling to come to terms with the loss of their patron saint, Sathya Sai Baba.
The economy and activities of Puttaparthi are largely concentrated around the Sathya Sai Baba ashram. Puttaparthi has a population of less than 7,000, not counting the floating population inside the ashram. The landmarks and institutions that separate Puttaparthi from any other small town in India have all been built by the Sathya Sai Foundation. Institutions such as the Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School, the University of Higher Education, the Academy for Music and the Arts, the Hill View Stadium and the Sathya Sai Superspeciality hospital are the biggest landmarks of Puttaparthi, and all of them have been built with donations received from Sai Baba's devotees-the elite of India and as well as foreigners. With more than 1 lakh visitors every year, Puttaparthi, with schools, superior water connections, electricity and Internet connectivity, was the ideal Indian town.
"The problem with Puttaparthi has always been that it functions around Baba. Even when he was alive when he travelled to live in Whitefield in Bangalore or the Kodaikanal ashram, Puttaparthi would become a ghost town. His devotees would follow him. That was our off-season. Now we have a permanent off-season," says Dhanush, whose family has lived here for over 50 years. A month after Sai Baba's demise, the flood of visitors has reduced to a mere trickle.In the past month, nearly a dozen Internet cafes have shut shop. "There used to be so many foreigners, but they have stopped coming now," says Raju Kanwar, a real estate broker. Most businesses such as Internet cafes, real estate companies, markets, Kerala ayurvedic centres and the quintessential handicraft shops have all been hit by the downslide after Baba's demise. "During season, we earned about Rs 8,000-10,000 every day. We could afford to wait out the lean months. In the last month, we haven't managed to make even Rs 100-200 a day," says Dhanush, who works for a property developer. Property developers who invested in Puttaparthi are now struggling to find buyers. Earth Song, a local real estate company, used to sell houses for Rs 28 lakh and above. In 2010, they sold nearly 30 villas worth Rs 52 lakh each. Today they are struggling to find buyers for smaller villas behind the ashram at Rs 30 lakh. "We are giving massive discounts, but we have acquired land at high prices and have to break even," says Partho, who runs the main office of Earth Song. While the price of land in and around Puttaparthi is approximately a lakh for a cent, it is around Rs 25 lakh around the ashram. "Many made windfall gains. They bought land at rockbottom rates and sold it to developers who built apartments that were sold to devotees," says Dhanush. Nearly 70 per cent of the apartments on the three main streets of Puttaparthi are unoccupied and now, with Baba's death, the fear is that they will remain vacant.

Businessmen sourcing and selling handicrafts have also been hit hard. "My parents came to Puttaparthi from Gujarat more than 35 years ago. They started small and thanks to Baba's blessings, have done well," says Vinod Kumar, whose father started the handicrafts business that Kumar currently runs. "Now there is absolutely no business. We are a family of 12 and the future looks scary." As he waits for the odd customer, he remembers an old story: "Someone once heard Baba predict that after he passed on, Puttaparthi would be inhabited only by dogs and monkeys. At the moment that's my greatest fear."

There are others like carpenter Nandi Krishna who feel Puttaparthi is headed in the same direction as Shirdi and it is likely be become a major destination for pilgrims. "No one knew of Shirdi till Bollywood made films about it. Puttaparthi will flourish again, but that will take a long time. I wonder if we can wait that long," says Krishna.
In stark contrast to the outside world, inhabitants of Prasanthi Nilayam remain unperturbed. Their routine remains largely unchanged. Bhajans at 5 a.m., nagarsankirtans (or circumnavigating the premises as they sing bhajans) at 7 a.m. and serpentine queues for breakfast and lunch mark the activities of the ashram. It's business as usual, with visitors from across the country volunteering their services. "People who come for seva are not the ones who can boost the economy, they are people who need the ashram just as much as the ashram needs them. We need the foreign devotees," says Rakesh Rao, whose restaurant serves an English breakfast, a continental lunch and can even provide a kosher meal for Jews. "Baba has assured us that he is not going anywhere. We can feel his presence here all the time," says a spokesperson of the ashram. But Kumar concludes, "I know Baba is with us, he won't abandon us, but to be able to pay bills we need to sell and that's not possible without visitors who visited only to be in the physical presence of Baba."

Author Topic: Can Puttaparthi Survive? (Read 890 times)

B̲l̲i̲n̲g̲

Can Puttaparthi Survive?

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