Chilkur Balaji: The God of Visas

We all know about the long line when it comes to procuring a visa for the US. Jokes regarding green cards are a very common affair in Indian middle-class society. This story is about a case of divine intervention when it comes to visas and foreign travel. The Chilkur Balaji temple or the Visa God is one such deity! This story tells the tale of the Visa God.

Chilkur Balaji Temple (Source: Google)

Thousands of people gather every week at the Chilkur Balaji Temple, also known as Visa Balaji, near Lake Osman Sagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad hoping that their prayers will also be heard.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of India (MOIA), in 2012 had 4,38,19,750 Indians living abroad. By January 2015 it had grown to almost around 5 crore and most of these were people from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The wave of migration from India peaked in the late 2000s. Many young Indians immigrated to Australia, America, Canada and Europe. Most of those who have migrated are still leaving the country because of better living standards and higher wages said a student who recently visited the famous Balaji Temple in Chilkur.

At the temple, people from the neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu perform their usual prayer ceremonies and make vows while circling the inner shrine 11 times. When the wish is granted, the devotee roams the Holy of Holies 108 times. This tradition came into fashion from 1983 to 1984 when Gopalakrishna, one of his in avatar, made his eleventh turn around the deity while a well within the Temple's complex was being dug. As soon as he completed 11 laps the worker hit the water. Gopalakrishna then completed another 108 rounds out of gratitude.

Since then, the temple has been visited by 4,000 to 5,000 devotees daily, with more on holidays and weekends. Many people visit Osman Sagar Lake next to the temple to meditate.

More than 2 million Indian-born immigrants lived in the United States alone in 2013 accounting for 4.7% of the 41.3 million foreign-born population, the second-largest immigrant population after Mexicans, according to a report in the online journal. Telugu-speaking people make up the majority of this 4.7% of her.

This overseas brain drain will also hit businesses hard, as businesses in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh still suffer from a shortage of skilled workers despite producing large numbers of engineers each year. Visa Balaji continues to appear to be a busy god as the queues of people waiting to leave India show no signs of slowing down.