JOIN USSuttur jathra: Blend of religion, technology
Hello... hello... charlie... lunch is ready.... there seems to be chaos in the expo... attend to it...
Beep of walkie-talkie has become a regular at the ongoing suttur jatra in Nanjangud taluk in the district. If you mistake it for police on bandobust duty, it wouldn’t be a surprise, as the volunteers at the jatra have adopted technology to monitor the happenings.
Introduction
For the first time in the history of annual fair Suttur mutt has incorporated the technology for inter-communication, thanks to cellphones- another new found technology bogged by trouble at times owing to network error.
This despite the fact that the shrine has mobile towers to aid the cellular service. The heads of all the committees from expo to seminar, mass feeding to another, all around 28 have been given equal number of walkie-talkie. The information centre near the gaddige (the tomb of the pontiffs) acts like a control room from where messages are dispatched through the hand held device.
It comes (is coming) handy at the time of power cut, disruption in water supply among other exigency.
The volunteers in traditional get up of a white shirt and dhoti, a pink shawl draped-Shivartreeshwara with the only advanced communication in hand make for an interesting watch awhile.
Madhukumar who heads the information centre told Deccan Herald, earlier when the mega meet of Akhila Bharata Veerashaiva Mahasabha was conducted, walkie- talkie had been introduced for the benefit of the organisers. However, it’s for the first time, it has been introduced in the fair.