As prayers go hi-tech

MUMBAI: A full-time career and two kids leave Reena Sharma with very little time to worship her favourite god, Lord Ganesha. But technology seems to have come to the rescue of the 35-year-old, who now sends a request for a puja via SMS to the Siddhivinayak temple. What is more, the prasad is delivered to her house the same day.

“We are changing with the times and using technology to reach out to as many people as possible,” Siddhivinayak temple CEO Hanumant Jagtap told DNA. The temple also accepts bookings for online pujas where people can offer prayers at home through their computers and the prasad gets delivered at their doorsteps.

Siddhivinayak also has an online darshan facility which enables NRIs to virtually visit the temple premises and even make donations. “We have about four million hits every month since we started this service a year ago,” Jagtap added.

Technology sure has become a boon for the religiously inclined. Online pujas, live telecast of aartis and  SMS alerts for prayers — there is all that and more for Ganesha devotees this year. “Festival time is a good occasion for brand-building. Through this initiative, we are taking mobile telephony beyond tariff plans and providing consumers a chance to use technology to simplify their lives,” Jayant Khosla, director western region, Airtel, said. The cellular service provider has tied up with the Siddhivinayak temple for the SMS service.

Other mobile service providers like Hutch, BPL and Reliance are offering downloads of Lord Ganesha wallpapers, ring tones and logos besides SMS alerts for prayers and aartis.

Meanwhile, Ganpati mandals in the city are also going tech-savvy with live web-casts of the aarti and electronic display screens at railway stations in the city. “We have tied up with nearly a dozen websites to telecast our aartis,” Satish Kankar of the Lalbaug Ganesh Mandal said.

We are sure Lord Ganesha would approve!