I never thought I will ever visit to Tirupati to take blessings from Lord Venkateswara. But it was written and I was taken to Thirumala.
I am in Chennai to work at a client side. One of the friends from this place had been to Tirupati last weekend with his family. Till this moment I wasn’t aware that Tirupati is that close to Chennai. January 31, 2009
I went to book a ticket of southern travels to Chennai Central station but could not locate one. So I have booked a ticket for me thru SRS Travels for Tirupati. The agent showed us a framed picture of Volvo and also informed that a small room will be provided in the morning for getting freshened up.
I reached at the Central station @ 2100hrs. One more Bengali guy like me on a business tour was waiting for the bus. We were boarded on to a bus which took us to the Private transporters bus stand.
The bus left @ 2230 hrs. All of us went to sleep. Around 0230 hrs we reached to Reniguntha in Andhra Pradesh, the transit location where we can buy a ticket for Venkateswara darshan.
February 01, 2009
We stood in the queue for nearly 3 hrs and my number came at 0530 hrs. The computer thru which the tickets are booked were operated by three people. One to hold your finger on to the Finger print scanner, one for web cam and one to hit the enter key on keyboard.
When the link went down for some time we were really worried if it can come up soon. I don’t understand why a rich devasthan have another computer installed as a backup and ensure the connectivity to the server.
We moved to our temporary halt in one of the hotels in Tirupati. We were given a single room, yes I and the Bengali guy had to share a room for half an hour to get freshen up. We then headed for breakfast.
One of the local busses were to take us to the temple, I got my bag and slippers as my another new friend Ramesh, who also wanted to get his long hair devoted to the devasthan as a tradition told to me that we have to take bath and get all our cloths changed after that. I had already taken bath but then I wasn’t aware of this before. He told me to be with him always till the end of our journey.
We boarded to the local bus and reached the temple in an hour’s time thru the Ghats. The bus driver was really crazy as he was rash driving the bus and even over taking where it was strictly prohibited and blowing horn to get side was so often. The road was properly built and safer than the difficult Ghats of Maharashtra.
We got down from the bus for getting our hair cut. I left my slippers in the bus and asked my Bengali friend to look after in case the bus leaves.
Our guide took us to the hall where the hair cut takes place. Within no time the hair were gone and we were ready to visit the temple. After getting the hair cut all were putting sandal wood paste on to the head for beating the sun. I too got hold of some to beat the sun.
We came back to our group and to my surprise the bus wasn’t there and so my slippers.
We stood in a queue unaware of how many hours after my number will come for darshan. We got our clearance thru the security they verify the ticket which is bar-coded then your picture appears on screen.
We kept moving on and on and on. Walking thru narrow corridors sailing with the sea of people all were submerged to get a glimpse of their god.
We moved close to the temple, a beautiful temple covered fully with layers of gold everywhere on the walls, roofs of temple. I moved with the crowd and from a distance I could see the erected idol of Venkateswara. A small ghee lamp was burning inside the temple. The main temple is very much inside where no body is allowed to enter, however we could see the Venkateswara from a distance. The peace one can observe just by looking at the idol can only be experienced by being there and there itself.
We returned back to our hotel and I bought a new pair of floaters. After taking lunch we all headed to Chennai. Ramesh then hired a rickshaw for me to bring me back to my hotel.
I was all happy and still experiencing the peace of mind.
