A land of beauty to a land of beasts!

[Guest guest]

Other day I visited the Supreme Court of Ohio in Columbus. Fantastic building.

Everything in it's pristine beauty. Marble, paintings, doors, water fountains,

the bathrooms and so on. I asked the guide how were they able to retain the age

old beauty and how old the building was.

 

Bldg is hardly over 100 years old. There was dust filled all over, the seats

were in bad shape and all the paintings were filled with smoke (people in olden

days were allowed to smoke in the buildings), the doors were squeaking, the

floor/pillars were getting damaged, the outer building was all messy. The

government banned smoking in the buildings first, then renovated the entire

place.

 

They did not take down the entire structure. They did not blow the place

away with bombs. They restored the paintings with utmost care, the walls, the

chairs etc using special techniques. They even made sure the carpet was saved

and it was of the same color and every single piece was salvaged and saved.

There were pictures of presidents, cheif justice and others who lived just 50 to

100 years ago and there was a note on the wall saying these great people walked

in this corridors and worked here. I felt so happy to have walked in the same

corridor as some of the people who are believed to be some of the greatest

people on earth.

 

It is a fantastic place to visit. It's only 100 or so years old. It is

considered heritage, a historical building.

 

 

Now go to the most famous place on this Earth, Tirumala in India. The richest

place. There is destruction all over. Entire place has been bought down using

bombs. Alas I don't find the 1000 pillared Mandapam any more, where we used to

sit and do astakshari japam and meditate on Lord, while we were kids. TTD

destroyed the hill and places of historical value, our heritage ---- not hundred

but over thousand years old. 600+ year old 1000 pillared mandapam is not to be

seen. I can't find the places where the greatest visionaries on earth lived. All

their places the great saints walked, lived have been destroyed. I wanted to sit

and bow to the place where our forefathers lived. I wanted to spend some time in

the garden where our forefathers spent time spreading the message of peace in

this world. There was no garden, there was no mandapam, there was no kutiram,

there was no matham. All I found was rubble, mud and deep craters created by

bombs. No it was not a terrorist act. It is just a TTD act!

 

Alas,.........What happened? What went wrong?

Did a land of beauty become a land of beasts?