Tirumala:
Lord Balaji's temple at Tirumala is immune to the recession. The world's richest temple has an annual budget of 1400 crores. And now, another 1000 crores are being donated by devotees.
The additional money will be used to add gold to the interiors of the temple, especially to the walls of the inner sanctum devoted to Lord Balaji. The goldplating will be completed by the end of next year.
Eighty kilograms of gold have already arrived at the temple. That's being converted into gold plates for the walls at a high-security workshop at Tirumala.
There'll be additional upgrades after that. " Once we start the work, we can do for adjacent places as well," promises D K Adikesavulu Naidu, the chairman of the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, which manages the affairs of the temple. The committee also promises that current inscripttions on the wall will be preserved and the new gold plates will not cover these.
An equally grand offering is being planned in the form of composer AR Rahman setting to music the lyrics of saint - poet Annamacharya, who had sung over 33,000 songs in the praise of Lord Venkateswara. Lata Mangeshkar recorded a set of compositions of Annamacharya earlier this year.