On Monday, I went to Tirupati to see the Sri Venkateswara Temple. I’ve always wanted to come here, but I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t realize it was this beautiful drive up the Tirumala Hill to get to the temple. Once we got my ticket, I didn’t have to wait in line for hours for my darshan. I was in a VIP line that moved quickly, and my darshan was at 8pm. But like everyone else, I only had a second to look at Lord Venkateswara. Once you stand in front of the idol, the temple staff pushes you along to keep the line moving. There are a number of armed officers with machine guns in the surroundings, since the gold idol is worth a lot of money. The spot for hundi is outside the worship area in a big white sheet, shaped like a canister that hangs from the ceiling. I’m told that the temple can easily collect at least 1 crore ($188,000 with$1=53 rupees)/day during festival season. There were also a number of men, women and children walking around with balled heads, as I soon learned that the temple was a place where people shaved their heads once a wish had been fulfilled. Apparently the hair is shipped to the U.S. or Japan for wigs to be made. A special thanks to our family friends, Dr. and Mrs. Reddy, who made this possible for me.
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About somanii
Indira S. Somani, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Mass Communications with Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. She began her tenure-track position in the fall of 2008 bringing 10 years of broadcast journalism experience as a television producer to the classroom. Somani teaches online and broadcast producing and broadcast reporting and has introduced two new courses called "Media, Race and Gender" and "Cross-Cultural Documentary Filmmaking." Somani studies effects of satellite television on the Indian diaspora, specifically the generation of the Asian Indians who migrated to the U.S. between 1960 and 1972, and their media habits. She has been published in the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, and the Asian Journal of Communication. For the fall of 2011, Somani has been awarded a Fulbright research award to study the Western influence of Indian programming in India. Somani is also an award winning independent producer and director of documentaries about how Asian Indians maintain and preserve their cultural identity. Her most recent production is “Crossing Lines” (www.crossinglinesthefilm.com), a personal essay documentary about her struggle to stay connected to India after the loss of her father. The film has won numerous awards, screened in film festivals nationally and internationally, screened on PBS affiliates, and has also been distributed to more than 50 university libraries in the U.S. through New Day films. Prior to W & L, Somani taught for five years at American University and the University of Maryland. Prior to transitioning to academia, Somani was a television producer most notably with CNBC and WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Washington, D.C. She has been a leader of the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), where she has also won several "Outstanding" awards on her coverage of South Asians in North America. Somani earned her Master's in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University in 1993, and her Ph.D. from the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park in May, 2008.
