Lifeless Puttaparthi comes alive

Puttaparthi (Anantapur): The otherwise lifeless Puttaparthi town sans the physical absence of Sathya Sai Baba is now teeming with life, thanks to the week-long birth anniversary celebrations of the Sai Baba. Traders and business houses, who made the town their abode for several decades are languishing in a sense of resignation as the devotees have a feeling that the soul of Puttaparthi is missing.

Hope dies for many, who made the town their eternal homeland even for the generations to come. Most of the 100 Kashmiri families left the town in despair. The few families, who remained here, recalled that the spiritual town was at one time teeming with life and all of them did roaring business. Azhadh, a Kashmiri says that he developed affinity and love for the town, but Baba’s absence made us despondent.

We always thought that Baba is eternal, and he would live for ever. His sudden sickness and admission in the hospital had woken us up to the reality that Baba after all is in flesh and blood and that death was inevitable, he stated. Many traders are bemoaning that once the celebrations come to an end and devotees return to their native places, once again the town gets reduced to a desolate town.

Devotees say that this was not the case when Baba lived and was a resident in Prashanthi Nilayam. Every day was like a birthday of Baba as the town was flooded with devotees, who used to descend from the world over. Hundreds of foreign devotees were residents of the town. They had purchased Villas and flats and lived for months right under the nose of the Baba. After the soul of Baba departed from the town, Real estate crashed to an all-time low and tens of villas and flats were sold at throw away prices.

Vijay Kumar, owner of Krishna Bhavan told The Hans India that his hotel was running with 12 servers once but now it is running with only four servers. This explains the downslide in business and decline in flow of tourists and devotees. He moaned that traders are today unable to pay taxes due to crash in business fortunes.

Mohan, a police constable echoed the same sentiment like others that there is hardly a traffic regulation problem as the VIP visits have become rare. In the past, traffic regulation was a big challenge and when Baba was alive traffic diversion was the order of the day. However, for many devotees who are kindling old memories, the ghost of Baba is still haunting them and keeping alive fond memories of the past.

By Ravi P Benjamin