Business called Baba
Very recently a small beautiful town in Haryana named Panchkula witnessed something very unusual. There were riots and violence at some places . The entire incident brought focus on many aspects of Indian psychology.
The incident has left lots of questions in my mind. Are these people looking for some God figure to bail them out of their life problems or do they have plenty of time to spend on such activities or worse still , Is poverty so rampant in India that for a paltry sum of 1000 with free food they can be taken anywhere??What is the vacuum these people have in life that they get drawn towards so called Babas. Is direct connection with God so difficult that we need a middleman ?
In any case digging deeper into it we find that no politician , actor , player or academician can draw this level of fan following . There are people who burn the midnight oil to achieve some position in their life and Im sure they cant even imagine this level of height ever in their life which such uneducated Babas reach in such a short duration.
Another dimension which cannot go unnoticed is the blind faith these followers carry towards such Babas and their preaching. These followers are ready to go to any length for their God /Baba. Such incidents will come and go , life will return to normal for all but are we prepared to not allow such Babas to flourish again or few months down the line we will witness another Baba influencing innocents about some miracles in their life.
On a funnier note these Babas typically operate like a true business house incorporating all the fundamentals of Marketing, Finance , operations and Human Resources. The branding part is something which needs to be studied very specifically as Companies spend years to create a brand and then maintain a positive image of it by spending crores in advertisements and media publicity. These Babas on the other hand spend almost nothing, rather build brand through positive word of mouth which in many cases is done by their own so called chamchas