Indian Temples getting ISO certified!

Temples are seeking professionalism. Hope, they are not asking for prayers to be professional, but as sacred as ever. In fact, they are willing to provide certain standardized, transparent and devoted services to the people in the name of the God.

Three well-known Temples from Chennai- Parthasarthy temple in Triplicane, Dhandayudhapani temple in Vadapalani and Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore- have applied for ISO 9000:2008 certification on account of being well-maintained temples from the city. The three temples have included their fixed assets, accounts and strict adherence to rituals for scrutiny for ISO.

The cleaning and mopping of Kapaleesswarar and Parthasarathy temples have been outsourced to a private firm. A popular hotel chain ‘Saravana Bhavan’, maintains the Vadapalani temple free of cost.

ISO 9001:2008 is a document of standards for quality management systems maintained by the International Organization for Standardization and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. Some of the requirements in ISO 9001:2008 include:

1.     A set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business;

2.     Monitoring processes to ensure they are effective;

3.     Keeping adequate records;

4.     Checking output for defects

5.     Regularly reviewing individual processes

6.     Facilitating continual improvement

Even before these three famous Chennai temples applying for ISO certification, the temples to have already joined the band wagon for this professional certification are Lord Ganesha’s Siddhi Vinayaka Temple in Coimbatore which is, surprisingly, just a 16×16 square foot temple.

A 180-years-old temple of Shri Ram Mandir in Madhya Pradesh boasts of ISO 9001-2008 certification for its exquisite idols and wonderful ambience for the devotees for offering prayers. The Golden Temple in Vellore is also ISO certified temple.

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Life in between a hoarding

Few days back while negotiating the city traffic of pune, I came across a very unfamiliar home in middle of busy traffic joint. The house was at high elevation overseeing the river. It had every aspect which a rich man wants like high elevation, scenic beauty, near to the city etc but the only difference being the home sandwiched between two hoardings.

Let me describe the home. Two hoardings back to back standing high at elevation enough to oversee the river. A small narrow space is created between the hoardings as they are erected back to back. This narrow space is the home I m talking about. It has space for everything even for the cycle which that family owns but it’s just hanged to the hoarding supporting bars.

The scene made me to think how we can live our life. It made me realize that we can live on this earth at any budget. Happiness at the heart is more important than the money. A person behind those hoarding lives his life fullest and a person in Kalyani nagar( elite class area in pune) also lives the same. That makes me wonder why we run behind temporary happiness created by money.

Few days prior to this incident my family ordered a sofa set for our living room costing half a lakh. I just kept on wondering throughout the day whether that sofa really needed when I saw that family between the hoardings. I just kept on thinking throughout the day whether that sofa where we hardly sit is really required for my family……..