NRIs, search for divinity, go divine shopping on Web

A growing number of Indians in the US are logging on to Hindu ritual service providers from India

CHENNAI: A Praveen, a software professional in Chennai was making arrangements for a Navagraha homam (to counter flaws in the horoscope) when he got a placement in Wisconsin in the US. Last week, sitting in his three-bedroom apartment in Madison that he shares with five others, Praveen logged on to www.saranam.com, an online Hindu rituals site, and added the Navagraha homam to his shopping cart. Saranam will conduct the homam in Chennai on April 5 and send him the prasad and a CD of the video recording. The cost: $ 58.99 (Rs 2,743).

A recent study by the Pew Hispanic Centre, Washington says the number of legal immigrants from India becoming US citizens went up from 56 per cent to 65 per cent in the last decade. For an increasing number of Indian Hindu migrants who remain highly ritualistic, the search for divinity is beginning with the Web.

“This is the next best thing to really being there at the temple. A lot of my Indian colleagues here do pujas at their favourite temples through such sites,” says Praveen over Google Talk. Saranam is among scores of online ritual service providers in India who get thousands of page views and hundreds of orders everyday from Indians living in the US.

Sitting in his 600 square feet ‘garage office’ at RA Puram in Chennai, Saranam co-founder Mahesh Mohanan monitors the stream of orders for the Navagraha homam as he explains the genesis. “After my marriage in 1999, I was advised to go on a pilgrimage of several temples.

Then running an e-commerce business, time was a major constraint and I realised there would be several people finding it difficult to visit temples. A website offering pujas through agents materialised in three months.”

Saranam, which started off with offerings at five temples in Chennai for $ 10, today has a network of 150 agents reaching hundreds of temples across India with a bouquet of services. The agents get the pujas done at temples and pass on the prasad and receipt to the headquarters which couriers them to the customers abroad.

“Initially, people were sceptical if we were really doing the pujas. After they sent their relatives to cross check, the business took off. Today we have 8,000 loyal customers besides others,” Mohanan adds.

“We do our regular pujas logging on to www.panchangam.com which has free downloads of mantras. My husband does the annual sacred thread changing on ‘aavani avittam’ and I do my ‘varalakshmi vrutha puja’ listening to the audio stream of instructions by the priest,” says Sunitha Shankar settled in Seattle for five years.

The service providers say more than 80 per cent of their customers are from the US. “I started off with an astrology website in 2000 and today I offer a range of other religious services,” says Sunil Sobti, director of Delhi-based www. astroshastra. com. “The largest number of requests is related to career, family and finance. From 15 clients a month in 2000, the numbers have grown to 80 a month now.”

Growing demands have translated to specialisations such as ‘career astrology’ and ‘stockmarket astrology.’ Chennai-based www.pariharam.com gets at least 10 inquiries a month for a special puja for childless couples.

The puja, with a price tag of $ 25 (Rs 1,125) is offered at the Garbharakshambikai temple in Thanjavur and ghee is sent as prasad. “The couple has to take the ghee for 48 nights for best results,” says Pariharam administrative manager Sivaraman.

While the ‘divinity’ sites cannot afford to have crass commercials, they have tied up with google ads for some smart links. So, the page on special puja for childless couple has links to a pregnancy guide and another one to a babymoon vacation in the US, complete with “a king-sized bed, single jacuzzi, mommy-to-be bath milk and a special memory box for first tooth, first curl and a 2”x 3” baby photo frame.

The service providers say more than 80 per cent of their customers are from the US, while 15 per cent are from the UK and Europe. Resident Indians constitute the rest, who mostly seek astrological advices. Leading temples in India have websites where devotees could make reservations for poojas.