Dolariya Mata temple in a village, became famous in 2022 when 4 of family died crossing to US

By Rajiv Shah

A little less than two months back, I was reading a story in The Hindustan Times by my journalist friend Maulik Pathak with the headline "How Gujarat villages take the dangerous flight of illegal migration", and I was instantly reminded of the village about which Pathak was referring to -- Dingucha. I visited Dingucha, which is in Gandhinagar district of Gujarat, a few years back, where I was taken by one of our family members whose ancestors belonged to this village. They still have a house in the village, with quite a big open space, where we relaxed.

A humming village on the day I visited it, I was told it becomes virtually deserted most of the year except during the festival season, starting with Navratri (usually in October) and ending with Makar Sankranti (January 14). Essentially an NRI village, I was informed, most of the families of this have at least one person living -- legally or illegally -- in the US.

One person who went to the US through illegal means, whom I have not met but have known about from the relative who had taken me to Digucha, lives somewhere around New Jersey-New York area, about two decades ago. He worked in different shops, and finally managed to get valid US citizenship last year. Such was his predicament that he couldn't come to India when his father passed away in 2018.

Of course, this person has been quite faithfully supporting his mother -- a widow -- and even now supports monetarily with cash which he sends from the US to his mother and a sister. Only after he received US citizenship could this person manage to come to India, threw a lavish party for his relatives, and "presented" TV and other costly electronic goodies to his mother, who lives in a one room house, and his married sister, whose financial condition isn't good.

When I read stories in Indian and US media in 2022 about how four persons of a family -- Jagdish Patel, his wife Vaishali, and their young children, Vihanga and Dharmik — seeking to illegally cross over to the US from the Canadian border in the height of winter due to frost bite, I kept wondering: how did this person manage to go to the US? Did he go there on a 10 year valid tourist visa, and stayed back? Or he crossed over illegally? Via Mexico or Canada? Or somewhere else? I never cared to ask.

I was told, this person, trying to settle down in the US, though still a bachelor, has now been asking his mother to come over and stay with him in the US as a dependent. "This is one option he has told his mother. The other is to sell the house where she lives now in a ghetto like society, and buy a new house, and he would also provide reasonable amount to make a good choice."

Be that as it may, during my visit to Dingucha a few years ago, I was taken to the three well-built temples of the village, which has a registered population of about 3000. One of them interested me the most: "This is Dolariya Mata temple", I was told. "Anyone wishing to go to the US makes a wish here, and NRIs offer dollar notes to only this temple."

A few days back, during a family gathering, I tried asking this relative of mine about the Dolariya Mata temple. "Yes, the temple still is the most attractive destination for NRIs, and it's here that those coming from the US offer dollar notes. It's actually Brahmani Mata temple, but it's popularly called Dolariya Mata", this person said, adding, "Recently, during a celebration, a tower embellished with dollars was created in the village. There have been instances when amidst festivities and family functions dollars are showered from air around this temple..." Such craze for dollars? Is it because we in India haven't made the country attractive enough, hence people with to move to the US?

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