As for the point about wasting money, how do you classify ‘waste’? Dont all religions/cultures spend money setting up their monuments?

Just because India is poor doesnt mean that only the people begging on the streets should be given money before any development takes place. Development is a phased activity.

When this temple was built a whole new road system was developed around it, helping ease traffic in that part of town. Then there are ancillary services that get setup and provide employment to people.

I too hate the religious resurgence and misdirected resources in India. However, you’re dead wrong about Indians not building resources. What you say is true mostly about the English colonial rule.

Indians build what was probably the oldest (yes, before the romans) highway system, tree-lined and with rest stops. They ran a university system with 4,000 students including a significant number of foreign students in pre-christian times at Nalanda (Buddha “guest-lectured there!) The Chola kings built dams in Tamil Nadu which were working till the last century before a misguided district official covered it with concrete.

I urge you visit beyond the big cities and to hit the books to discover some of the extraordinary things that happened in India in its history. It is too facile to offer simplistic comments about 5000 years of history and civilization.

While the temple is impressive, it reminds me that people waste their money on “charity” for the gods rather than charity for the people begging on the streets and for impoverished (and, in many cases, brilliant) Indian children and students.