The Digital Capture of Light

For this edition of Temple Tales, I've chosen a temple not for its storied history or its architectural marvels, but for the sentimentality this Temple holds for me. When I first came to the US as a graduate engineering student, it felt like I was stepping into a whole different world. The customs and traditions of College Station Texas were certainly different from those of Madras or Madurai. The large Indian community at this university town however provided excellent guidance and helped me settle into my new surroundings. And that is how I came to know of Sri Omkarnath Temple at College Station, TX.

The University town of College Station and its twin city of Bryan have a total population of about 100,000. There is a thriving Indian community mostly made of doctors, professors and students. For a nice read on the Indian community here is a link to an old post by pooh. Like most US small town Hindu temples, this is a community run temple without a permanent priest and most of the work done on a voluntary basis. The activities and temple improvements are attended to by the Hindu Society of Brazos Valley. The temple itself is basically a single hall, with all the deities lined up on a pedestal along the wall. During the festival times, the community would organize special poojas at the temple and it would look like all the Indian population of College Station were gathered at the temple. Food cooked by the volunteers would be served as prasad, and this was an extra incentive for us, the poor college students to gather there.

When I attended Texas A&M University, me and my room-mates used to volunteer at the temple. On Fridays after school hours, we would drive to the temple and open its doors. Prayers done, we would wait till the next volunteers arrived and then we would go back to our apartments, cook Chicken Biryani and Tandoori Chicken and have feast!!