On a wall in the Mahaganpathi temple, along with pictures of deities, there is one particular poster that stands out. This poster urges visitors to like the Mahaganpathi Temple Facebook Page and to scan the QR code on the poster to do so. At the evening Aarti, a tripod with a phone live-streaming the proceedings is set up. The young priest, who works on getting his B.M.M degree during day time, tells us that a number of people who are originally from Malleswaram are now abroad but the temple uses technology to reach out to them.
Similarly at the Sri Kanyaka Parameshwari Temple, the priest informs us that the temple has devotees from all over the world…. “if you go onto our facebook address, you will find multiple things and see how many followers from abroad we have…”
Mr. Murthy also states that the demographic of Malleswaram is changing : “Now many old people are gone away- many people’s children have settled abroad and taken their parents to USA, Canada. Hardly anyone is left.”
Laxman and Arun Kumar’s own children have settled in Singapore and Australia respectively. Laxman is emphatic, however, in informing us that his son “loves Malleswaram...he is only in Singapore for money but he will come back…”
However, there is a sense that these diasporic persons also maintain a sense of engagement with their old neighborhood, through these digital mediums.
This media is also tied to the model of a temple as a corporation or nucleus in a larger trust that governs multiple activities such as the Sri Kanyaka temple’s youth hostel, marriage hall, health clinics. These facebook pages are used for outreach in the same way in which a business might use them. Sutram Kiran Shastry’s parting words to us reinforce the idea of marketing the Temple as Corporation; he urges us to come to the temple’s Anant Chaturdashi- “In the past you will never have seen anything like it, in the future you will see nothing like it- please come!”