It was not a spur of the moment decision to seek 15-second of fame on TV screens. When Former IAS of Madhya Pradesh cadre Mr Subramanian Lakshminarayanan visited Ayodhya last month with his wife Saraswati, he had already made up his mind to donate all his property for a specific purpose – getting a replica of Sant Tulsi Das’s Ram Charit Manas installed in the upcoming Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in front of the deity.
Each page of the replica will be 14*12 inches in size made of copper, inscribed with verses from Ram Charit Manas. Each page of this epic, comprising 10,902 verses, will have a 24-carat gold-plating.
The Golden replica will have approximately 480-500 pages and it will be made of 151 Kg Copper and 3-4 Kg Gold. Each page would be of 3 kgs copper would it would require 4-5 gms of gold for the plating. The metallic manuscript will weigh over 1.5 quintal.
Mr Lakshminarayanan told Indian Masterminds that the whole project would cost him approximately Rs 4.5-5 crore. It will being created by famous Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers of Chennai, who had designed and crafted Sengol installed in the new parliament building of India. It will take them t least three months to make the exhibit.
Mr Lakshminarayanan says the jewellers have guaranteed that the gold plating will last for at least 100 years. He however, will donate the additional money to Ram Janmabhoomi Temple Trust for a second gold plating, if needed even after 100 years, he told Indian Masterminds.
Mr Lakshminarayanan hopes to install the golden replica in place by Ram Navmi i.e. April 17, 2024. The Ramayana or Manas, as it is commonly known, will be put on a stone pedestal just 15 feet away from the Ram Lalla’s idol in the sanctum sanctorum.
On top of that will be Ram’s Pattabhishek made of silver, a picture of which is on the invitation card extended to all dignitaries for the Temple’s inauguration function due on February 22.
The golden replica will be kept in a toughened glass chamber in complete vacuum so that neither air not dust can touch it.
Mr Lakshminarayanan will sell all his properties and drain his bank deposits to generate required amount for the project. He got in touch with Mr Champat Rai, the general secretary of Ram Janmabhoomi Temple Trust, who consented to keep the replica in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.
So what prompted him to become a modern-day Karna? “I have had lived a good and meaningful life. Served in prominent positions. Got good money, even after retirement. I don’t have much expenses now. I can’t spend even half of my pension. So, I am trying to return to him a part of what the God kindly provided me’, he told Indian Masterminds.
He said that he didn’t want to splurge good life’s savings on a project where he wasn’t sure how it would be utilised. That’s why after lot of mulling, he decided to spend it on a gold-plated Ramayana to be placed before the idols in Ayodhya. “There couldn’t have been better utilisation”, he said.
But, how has his family taken his decision? Did his children support him in this? He has only one daughter, Priyadarshini, who is settled in America. “During my stay in this society for past 12 years, I never saw his daughter or any other relative, coming over to stay with the couple” says his former next-door neighbour in Noida, Mr SP Verma.
Mr Lakshminarayanan confirmed that his daughter, son-in-law and grandson are settled in Seattle, USA for past several decades. “My daughter is an MBA, on board of several companies, son-in-law is working with Microsoft and grandson is studying in Carnegie University. None of them need a single penny from me. They all are supporting my decision completely”, he claimed.
That’s not all. He shuns media completely. “It was a personal decision of me and my wife. We don’t want any publicity. I don’t know how media got whiff of my decision”, the veteran bureaucrat said, very reluctantly speaking to the Indian Masterminds.
