I was thinking about the stories I read growing up whether in print or from my grandmother. No wired pluggable devices then that I could listen to. It was 1 on 1 - grandma lighting the lamp in front of the half elephant half man statue telling a tale.
The caricatures were largely from the great epics of the yesteryear 'Bharat' now called 'The Republic of India'. The tales were as fascinating as say the Genesis or other ancient texts written by people in caves.
One thing is for sure - the authors had vivid imagination. From the multi headed terrorists to the ahead of its time, genetically fused animal and human versions of supermen and women we had a virtual plethora of superheroes and gangsta duels. The most famous of these tales happen to be the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Add to that the collective episodes of Ganesh and Shankara and you had a full on suite of night time entertainment before bed time.
The weaponry used in those days also seemed somewhat advanced with flying monkeys and feats of strength that would frankly put Superman to shame. He did not lift an entire mountain after all on his little finger and fly it into a battlefield.
So the difference between this folklore and the tales of Superman or Batman which also were widely published and sold by Hollywood to eager fans around the world - lack of Superman or Ironman temples. I guess unless you call Universal Studios a temple where the faithful come from far and near and stand in long lines to pay tribute to the most bizzare and outrageous creations that mankind thought of. Thankfully there are no priests that accost you to buy garlands and coconuts or multi colored threads or other paraphernalia to lay at the feet of the Terminator.
India too should take a page from Hollywood and just restrict their whole temple building activity to one glorious setup full of rides that look like you were flying over Sri Lanka with Hanuman...make that a flying baboon..or fighting with super laser beams with Kauravas while wearing hi tech 3D goggles. They can then charge people a fancy month's salary and only then allow for getting close to god. This will also free up space in the cities and downtown area where vehicles and humans have a hard time navigating due to temple related action..both the physical premises taking up space and the allied industry that supports it taking up even more space.
They have attempted this type of experiement at Akshardham in New Delhi - however the access to this place and getting inside once in the parking lot leaves a lot to be desired - it is a battle that I rather not fight again.
This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...
Once when I visited Hardwar and stayed at a Guest house on a street full of huge statues, there was a Las Vegas kind of feeling with lights, music blaring and so on. So this could actually work-we are already halfway there.
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