As chairman of the Shirdi temple, Suresh Haware is bringing management to the abode of miracles
On a trip to Shirdi with his family a few months ago, Suresh Haware did not even manage so much as a glimpse of Sai Baba and the wish for a proper darshan remained. Few weeks later, the nuclear-scientist-turned-developer received a call from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, urging him to take up the role as the chairman of Shirdi Sai Baba Temple Trust.
“As a student of science, I don’t believe in miracles. But there are times when science falls short in explaining certain phenomena and faith takes over,” says multi-millionaire Haware, who quit his scientist’s job at BARC to take over the family’s real estate business when his brother passed away in an accident a decade ago. Having made hundreds of crore, serving Sai Baba is Haware’s way of returning to the community, and his Maybach makes the Mumbai-Shirdi shuttle at least twice a week for his hands-on role at the trust.
“Among contemporaries, Sai movement is the largest spiritual movement in the world. There are more than 3,000 Sai Baba temples in India and over 400 temples abroad,” says Haware, adding that the legend of Sai Baba has been propagated by his devotees across the world. He said his immediate challenge is to work on the betterment of Sai Baba’s precincts in Shirdi. From overseeing the community kitchen that feeds thousands of devotees every day and the two super-speciality hospitals in Shirdi, to the schools, colleges, and technical institutes run by the Shirdi trust, the chairman has his hands full with the routine duties.
While there is no shortage of funds at Shirdi, the temple rakes in a donation of over Rs 750 crore annually, there is a need to streamline the systems for the convenience of the millions of devotees who flock the temple every month. Being the man with management acumen, just three months into his new role, Haware is already bringing in his expertise to Shirdi.
One of the first initiatives he took was to centrally air-condition the entire space where thousands of devotees queue up for hours. “We already had 550 ACs at Shirdi, but the devotees who are the mainstay of the temple suffered in silence. Now, the entire zone is being air-conditioned so that people can wait for the darshan comfortably,” says Haware.
From setting up token-issuing booths on the highways and railway stations leading to Shirdi to giving darshan slots online, the entire process will be QC-code enabled so that devotees will know the exact time they will get the darshan and they can enjoy their stay in Shirdi instead of just standing in the queue for hours.
“We are doing away with the system of VIP darshan which was misused by touts. Now, every devotee will be a VIP,” says Haware, adding that eventually everything will be organised through a Sai app, that will bring all the services like accommodation, donations, bhajans, etc under one umbrella.
Haware’s team is simultaneously working on creating new infrastructure for the recreation of devotees who come to Shirdi from far and near.
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 "Suresh Haware")
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