On a spiritual note

Even as celebrations in pubs and bars ring in the new year, rakesh kumar notices another growing trend ~
people heading for the temple

 

Ram Niwas Shastri, in his 40s, booked a ticket to Vaishno Devi for his family, which includes two kids and his mother, at least two months ago for the New Year. His only argument for doing so is that he wants to spend the first day of the year on a spiritual note. According to him what could be better than visiting a temple. "I could have easily afforded a leisure vacation on hill stations or at the sea shore. But it was my family's desire to start the year on a religious note. Therefore, we decided a trip to  Vaishno Devi to kickstart the new year," reasoned Shastri, who is an engineer by profession and well-paid.
This is not a stray case. Take the example of Krishna Pophale, a Mumbai- based pharmaceutical businessman, whose family also wants to visit some temple on this day. Therefore, he was planning to visit Shirdi temple in Mumbai. The family thinks the first day of the year is very auspicious; therefore visiting a temple is the best option. "What is the first thing we do after buying a house, vehicle or anything new? Or what do we do when we start a new business or go for a job the first time? In all the cases we visit a temple, don't we? Like this, we also want to visit a temple on New Year," opined Pohphale.
Going by the Indian tradition, it is true that before starting anything fresh, visiting a temple is deemed as a good omen. Therefore, it seems that in this new year, inspite of many heading to the hills, sea or another city, a number of people would prefer a temple or religious place to begin their new year. Earlier, people seemed to be more interested in visiting exotic places like Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Kerala, Shimla, Manali, Sikkim or Ladakh, but now new trend of visiting holy places is also taking shape. Shuomo Mukherjee from the Key Hotels and Key Resorts totally agreed with this trend. "We have 15 hotels and many are at religious places like Mahabaleshwar, Shirdi and Tirupati. Surprisingly, all our hotels are packed with 80 per cent occupancy. This confirms the new trend ~ people love to visit some spiritual place than some other place," said Mukhejee, chief marketing officer of Key Hotels. "Moreover, on this day, we get many requests from our customers to facilitate the temple visit."

During Christmas week, which goes on till the dawn of the new year, people remain in a holiday mood. As per Thomas Cook India, a travel planner company, the upcoming New Year holiday offers opportunity for short breaks and has further fuelled demand, resulting in an impressive upswing of over 26 per cent for international holidays. As the Indian traveller is conventionally a last minute planner, the expected number could increase further by about 10-12 per cent. Another travel website, Yatra.com informed that there is 40 per cent hike in bookings compared with last year. "However, recently, newer destinations such as desert, heritage, waterfront and even pilgrimage destinations are being explored as leisure holiday spots, and will account for 50 per cent share in all holidays planned in the upcoming year," said Hari Nair, founder and CEO, HolidayIQ.com.
However, Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.com, has a different take on it. He agreed there are a number of people, who like to visit the temple on 1 January but not in such numbers that one could call it a trend. "Of course, many prefer the religious destination but that is not the only case. Still people prefer those destinations, which are short distance destinations and unexplored."