Bengaluru: If you can't go to the temple, the temple will come to you

It's 6.30 am on a Thursday morning. Raghu and his family are preparing to set out on what they expect to be a long day. After all, they have to cover as much distance as they can while taking their wares house to house, and although they don't have to contend with haggling customers, it's not an easy sell anyway. No, they are not pushcart vegetable vendors. They are a new kind of 'start-up' in the city of start-ups. And they bring divine intervention to your home. Hey, isn't everything delivered at your doorstep these days?!

Raghu's is a temple on a tempo -- and it's a temple to Shirdi Sai Baba, which is why Thursday is the key day, when the family makes a neat Rs. 5,000 to 7,000 -- with two loudspeakers fitted in the front, the sanctum inside the carriage with a brass gopura atop, and Sai Baba seated in his trademark style, complete with garlands, aarti plates and other pooja paraphernalia.

They have a simple operating procedure: while Raghu drives, his two brothers, mother and wife stop by each house with aarti plates. With bhajans of Sai Baba playing loudly out of a stereo mounted on the tempo, they draw in the customers.nay.devotees.

When approached by this reporter, Raghu was initially skeptical, even hostile. He didn't want any trouble, he said, and started to leave, even warning against taking a photograph of his mobile temple. It took some persuasion to calm him, and he opened up.

"We are natives of Satara, Maharashtra, and staunch believers in Sai Baba. Our family has been spreading his message for generations", Raghu said. "Five years ago, there was a drought in Maharashtra and we had to move out of Satara in search of livelihood".

It was then that he hit upon the idea of mounting a Sai Baba temple on a bullock cart and traveling south of Maharashtra. "We got good response, thanks to Sai Baba, and in time we had enough money to buy the tempo", he says with a smile. It was the smile of having triumphed over drought and poverty.

The tempo is now temple, workplace and home. The family carries a mini kitchen, tents and beds in the vehicle. After a hard day's work taking Sai Baba to hundreds of homes, they pitch tents and settle down by the wayside. They use public toilets and bathe in lakes.

They came to Bengaluru three months ago. "People here are nice and receptive. Sai Baba has a huge following in this city. In the time we have been here, we have been moving mostly around Hosur Road and Old Madras Road", he said, adding that they had a good run initially in the IT belts of HSR Layout, Kormangala, Sarjapur Road, Bellandur and Whitefield, dominated by migrant techies.

When collections came down, Raghu decided to move to other areas of the city. Banashankari, where the encounter with this reporter happened, had disappointed him. "People here are not that receptive. They just stare at us and the temple is only a curiosity for them", he said with a hint of irritation.

Well, did he at least collect enough dakshina? "Some were generous, some have just parted with coins", he said, hastening to add, "But we don't keep all that we get. We go to Shirdi once in six months and offer it to the Baba temple there. Otherwise, we will be cursed. In some cases, we give receipts against donations for Sai Baba mandir and we perform special pooja for them.''

Raghu's brother Sagar joins in the conversation, saying that they were not the only ones in this 'dhandha' (business). "We have seen a mobile temples for Rama, Krishna and Ganapati in the Hosur Road area. Their tempos are double the size of ours, with around 20 people in each vehicle. They station their vehicles for hours in each place and perform pooja. They make a lot of money", he said.

With no licence or permit to obtain, no regulations to follow, these new-age temples might yet thrive in a city in a hurry.... Shirdi Sai Baba, moving with the times.