As you are already aware the Bangalore based foundation 'Sanghamitra Buddha Foundation', is planning on carving up the West face of Handigondi rock , 40 kms. South West of Bangalore, into a massive Buddha statue. Ostensibly the reason is to compensate the destruction of Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan by the Taliban.

What is not revealed officially is that this is not the only statue to be carved out. Surrounding rocks will meet a similar fate as the project proposes carving out busts of Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar and other national figures and locating them in a setting that reflects a Buddhist retreat. But because this novelty may soon fade off public memory, and perhaps may not generate enough revenue, it is rumoured that the Foundation proposes to develop over 2000 acres of land around these rocks into a Film City set on the Sholay film landscape.

Surely, it is the 21st century, when ancient saints, modern day freedom fighters and matinee idols could bask together in historical glory, compromising, in the process, a geological marvel of great antiquity and aiding the elimination of threatened bird species. That the impact of Talibanisation of religion would result in caricaturizing of holy figures and statesmen, wasn’t quite the imagination one expected to come so soon. But business is business.