Pittsburgh, Sep 24 - Austerity starts here! This is the message the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, perhaps, has sought to convey during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit here to attend the G20 Summit.

The first casualty of the austerity drive has been the strength of the media delegation accompanying the prime minister. It now stands reduced to 29 journalists from the usual 35 or more members who are normally part of the entourage.

This apart, gone are the days when caviar was a part of the normal indulgence and champagne flowed freely. Now, instead of a rather elaborate food menu to choose from, the choice before the prime minister's fellow travellers was quite limited.

But scribes from south India, as also others with a taste for the normal cuisine in southern states, were not disappointed. The tradition of serving thair sadam, or curd rice, that was started by former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, has not been stopped.

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A Hindu temple in US with a long tradition

One of the few places in Pittsburgh that is part of an excursion tour for the members of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's delegation is the imposing Sri Venkateswara Temple.

This is one of the earliest Hindu temples built in the US, dating back to 1977, and has been modeled on the famous Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam in Andhra Pradesh over a huge expanse of 3.5 acres.

The temple is as old as the Ganesha temple at Flushing in New York City which is generally thought to be among the oldest in the US at the site that originally belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Venkateswara temple, which sees some 100,000 visitors seek the blessings of the deities every year, is located on the immediate outskirts of Pittsburgh - called Penn Hills in the state of Pennsylvania.