I visited the Bangalore ISKCON temple that is near Mahalakshmi metro station. The main temple looked vibrant, but the people were so mad clicking photos, despite strict instructions. After spending almost an hour in the main temple sitting silently, I moved to the food section.
Food section had cakes, pastries, samosa, sweets, savouries etc. I tried their laddu – which was the best. Their Rasmalai was not at all good. I even tried Badam milk and that too was not good. Tried Puliyogare and it was cold, but the taste was good. Samosa was too oily and didn’t taste so good. I took for parcel “fried dhokla” and yet to taste it (Tasted now. It isn’t that great!). As I was about to exit, I noticed that as the last thing, they were offering “prasad” – which was simple rice and sambar. Pretty decent thing. But most of us thought they have only “paid prasad” and got into paying and buying eatables.
Last time I visited this temple was some 12-13 years ago and the cakes were too tasty and costly. Many items tasted so good. This time, I felt that the quality has come down a bit. Pricing of food items is quite budget friendly now for Bangalore standards. You can get one laddu for Rs. 30. One Samosa is Rs. 30. Walnut cake is Rs. 150. Mostly they’ve outsourced the food preparation to some outsiders.
How to build an entire economy and business around religion – ISKCON is a good case study. They have tried everything possible to sell and make some money. They’ve put on sale tulasi maalas to clothes to variety of idols to flutes. Anyway a lot of people who come to this temple are rich and are waiting for avenues to spend their money. So good for such people.
More than the food, this time, I enjoyed the time spent inside the main temple. As per their instructions, I never clicked a photo inside the temple. But I saw so many people violating this rule and clicking pictures. The Narasimha temple looked beautiful. The main Radha Krishna temple ceiling has wonderful paintings. I wonder how many people who were clicking the photos even cared to look up. Temples / religious / spiritual places are special spaces. We should cherish them from our soul, rather than making noise and clicking pictures there.
They had a QR code to give feedback on the food items. I scanned the QR code by giving camera permission to my browser. When I tried giving the feedback, it asked for my name, phone number, email etc. thank god (good Lord Krishna) it didn’t ask for my aadhaar number. I’m afraid once they get my phone number, they’ll keep sending donation requests. So I avoided giving them that feedback. And instead writing a review on my own website. Perks of having your own website!
Update after a day: I’ve been feeling some irritation in my throat and head ever since having this food. It might also be due to the dust. But this irritation and fever type of feeling seems to be due to the rasmalai and badam milk – which I don’t think were very fresh. So exercise due care before having cold items outside.
