Surendra Ullal
CHICAGO: Indian Americans across the country have urged Valdivia (Chile) based Cerveza Bundor craft brewery to apologize and withdraw its “Kali IPA” beer carrying the reimagined image of Hindu goddess Kali; calling it highly inappropriate.
Pitching for withdrawal Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism and Madhu Patel of NRI Press Club said that inappropriate usage of Indian deities or concepts or symbols for commercial or other agenda was not okay hurting huge number of community members here and abroad
Rajan observed that Goddess Kali is highly revered in Hinduism meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used in selling beer for mercantile greed.
Goddess Kali personifies Sakti or divine energy, and is considered the goddess of time and change. Some Bengali poets described her as supreme deity.
Beers made by Awards-winning Cerveza Bundor; whose history goes back to 2007 and whose mission includes “production of quality beers”; are sold at various places; reports suggest. Besides Kali, its other beers include Elfa, Ninfa, Troll, Belzeboo, Nessie.
