Source: Press Reports
KOLLAM, INDIA, December 17, 2002: At an age when most children play house, five school children in Kollam have built a temple and even manage its day-to-day affairs entirely on their own. In a profession where geriatrics rule, the head priest is a 14-year-old and the manager is all of 13. Initially, the people of Kollam shooed away the children, and their makeshift temple was demolished many times. But each time the children rebuilt it with renewed vigor. Their devotion didn’t go unrequited for those who opposed and ridiculed it are today sworn devotees of the Velithuruthy Siva Temple. It all started two years ago when Jayan, Arun, Aji, Akhil and Sreejan, all students at the Guhanandapuram High School, made a mud Sivalinga. They placed it on a barren piece of land and put a thatched roof over it. The primitive structure was demolished by the panchayat (village ruling council.) But when the children, all in the age group of 12-15, kept rebuilding the temple, the elders held a Deva Prasnam (a meeting of astrologers) which endorsed the project. Soon people rallied behind the children, a plot of land was purchased and funds collected to build a permanent structure. Temple architects have been summoned from Tamil Nadu. “We have already collected US$10,400,” says temple committee secretary K. Raghu, who is an adult and a bank manager.