Does Puttaparthi lost all it's grandeur?

Puttaparthi: There were times when Puttaparthi teemed with devotees from various parts of the country and across the globe in the month of November, eager to participate in the grand celebrations of the birthday of Sri Satya Sai Baba.

But today, not even a year after his demise, the picture is vastly different. The streets are no longer filled with visitors and the railway station and the bus station can hardly be described as busy as they had been all these decades.

Traders and other businessmen, who did a roaring business, are sitting idle wearing a disappointed and dejected look on their faces. One wonders what a change the absence of just one person has brought to the town.

In Puttaparthi, there are about 400 small and big lodges, apart from the hundreds of rooms at Prashanti Nilayam. They were always full with devotees during Baba's birthday celebrations, but today most of them are vacant.

When Baba was alive, there was real estate boom in the town and its surroundings with people flocking to the town for a piece of land to be near to the Baba or take advantage of the commercial value, but after the demise there was a sudden dip in the real estate business.

Today, there are no takers for the lands even at reduced prices. A cent of land, which cost lakhs of rupees when Baba was alive, has no takers today even if offered at Rs 2 lakh.

'I used to sell flowers worth Rs 1,000 per day. Today I find it hard to sell Rs 200 worth of flowers,' says Venkatalakshmi of Kotha Cheruvu, a flower vendor at Puttaparthi.

Nayar of Tamil Nadu, who ran a lodge here till recently, is working as a bearer at a hotel. When the Baba was alive, Puttaparthi provided work to people from Kotha Cheruvu, Enumulapalle, Rayalavaripalle and other surrounding villages.

They used to work in apartments as servants, construction workers and others. A washerman used to earn Rs 500 a day ironing clothes. Today, with most of the apartments remaining unoccupied, there is no work for him.

At one time, an apartment used to cost anywhere between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, but today its cost has come down to anywhere between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4 lakh.

Just two days ahead of Satya Sai's birth anniversary, there is no expected crowd of devotees but one can see the police everywhere. An unprecedented security arrangements have been made for the birth anniversary celebrations.

As many as 800 police personnel have been deputed for the occasion. Puttaparthi is being spruced up for the event on November 23. Tamil Nadu governor K Rosaiah will be the chief guest at the celebrations.