Akshardham

[CC1981]

I am kicking myself for not visiting Akshardham last January when i was in Delhi. I had 12 hours to kill and instead i ended up hanging out with a friend near red fort/connaught place. My friend told me we should visit Akshardham and its mind-blowing but she has a history of over-exgaggeration and i ignored her - to my loss. Anyways, i disagree with the argument that Indians should be concentrating on feeding its hungry/poor instead of making expensive projects like these. For one, i think India is the foremost civilization in the world when it comes to sculpting. By a country-mile.But this art will be lost if not nurtured and what better way to nurture it than comission works of art like Akshardham ? For two, i agree that work on these projects do feed the hungry/poor by providing employment for thousands of artisans and labourers who carve the stuff, haul the stuff etc etc. For three, works of stunning brilliance like these go a long way towards emotional boost for the nation and that cannot be quantified with numbers or money alone. For four, i think these works of art serve a long way to strengthen India's international image in terms of arts, architecture and capability of construction. I have a friend here who's father owns the largest construction company in Vancouver, drives an Audi, is super-rich and has a staff of 150 unionized workers plus usually 100-200 contracted workers and even he was impressed. Not just impressed, he was bowled over - he openly said that this 'skill' in carving/sculpting is centuries ahead of anything in Canada and even the best of the best North American sculptors will struggle to produce something ten times blander than Akshardham. This kind of impression done on foreigners have long-reaching positive consequences for India- though my friend didnt say it, i could see that he has a whole new appreciation for Indian artisans and he'd hire them out in a heartbeat if he could. When foriegners come to India and see these kind of marvellous works, it gives them the impression of 'can-do' attitude amongst the Indians and the foreign investor has visual cues to notice the capability of Indians. If anything, we need more Akshardhams. PS: Those murtis of Swaminarayan are spooky. Spooky because they are so bloody good. How the eff does someone make a gold-plated statue look so realistic ? When i looked at that guy's statues, i felt like saying ' yes ? what were you going to say ? Do wipe hat gold paint off and lets talk like normal people' !! Holy-moly !!!