India 5: The Boom Hits Bareilly

When I was in India three years ago, I attended a dinner party at Vikram Soni's house in New Delhi right before leaving. The conversation came round to the Boom in India. Geeti Sen, who was seated next to me, took it philosophically. "India survived the Moguls, India survived the British, and India will survive Western culture," she said.

By this visit, the Boom was so pervasive that it was easy to wonder if India will survive. The shopping block near Vikram's house full of Western-style shops: TGIF, The Gap, KFC. Western clothing is as common as Indian in many parts of the big cities. And cell phones have become a real nuisance.

But who would have thought it would have reached Bareilly? It turns out that Bareilly's location between Lucknow and New Delhi makes it a very hot place for development.

In fact, the Boom even hit Alakh Nath Temple. Imagine our surprise when, on reaching the Temple just after dark, we were greeted by a brightly lit statue of Hanuman at least sixty feet tall. (As it turns out, the statue is the work of Harish Johari, who was from Bareilly, and a long-time friend of Ganesh Baba's.)

More changes greeted us inside the temple gates. Even in the dark, you could tell things were cleaned up. And there at the main dhuni, sat Balak Baba! Though he's aged considerably since Peter Meyer took this picture, Balak Baba's loving energy affects the whole akhara. It's full of joy!

Not to mention new buildings. We sat at Saloney Baba's dhuni, too, laughing, smoking, and listening to stories, and there we met the young man responsible for all the changes, a local fellow in the business of building shopping malls but completely dedicated to the babas. Anand Akhara found an angel!