A visit to Tirumala is always special for me. The very first visit of Tirumala was during my toddler stages. Stretching back my memory as far as I started to remember, vaguely get images of a train window through which I saw a glowing orange + red faced rising sun, some random room walls.
I don’t remember visiting
Tirumala in later years for except eating Tirupati Laddu until June, 2005.
Since then, I have made 9 trips with every trip giving me a new experience and remember each trip precisely with month + year also.
Why do I love Tirumala? Is it because of:
-- Ghat road or the walk to Tirumala?
-- Tirumala laddu & food in Tirupati?
-- Govinda Govinda movie !?
-- The sense of feeling when you finally
get to see the Lord for about less than 30 seconds?
I was in a wrong assumption
that the ghat road is closed usually between 12 AM till 3 AM, so no activity
would be there on the hill temple. With the latest trip it made me realize that
Tirumala runs 24/7.
“An idle
brain is a devil's workshop”
After a significant gap, I
got some time to be alone. Out of the blue, I told myself – reach Tirumala by
walk, sit in the first seat of a bus going downhill to reach Tirupati, have
food in Bhimas, return home in a day. Darshanam was not in mind. It has
been more than 6 years since I last walked to Tirumala and hence decided to do
it.
After waking up at 4.45 AM,
managed to reach Tirupati by 12 PM to start the climb of 7.8 KM at 12.23 PM.
The initial hour was very difficult. Every 10 mins, I was taking a break,
scolding myself for coming alone to the walk and not having breakfast. Previous
walk instances were with my friends and I do not remember if I struggled to
this extent to climb. Is it because of age? Or lack of company? Or lack of
fitness - Earlier trips were done when I was used for long walks and public
transport. Slowly, started to count 10 steps at a time to reach Gaali Gopuram
after an hour. From here, the walk eased out.
Finally reached Tirumala at
3.30 PM – more or less the walk took about 3 Hrs. Good job. Next agenda was
food – had onion dosa and hot badam milk, followed by heavy rain. After several
back and forth consultations with my wife, enquiries with locals, I decided to
go for Sarvadarshanam – free darshanam. The locals told there were hardly any
people for sarvadarshanam and you might be out in 1 or 2 hours also. So I
decided and went in but the wait turned to 6 Hrs in Vaikuntam queue complex 21.
Without a mobile/newspaper/book I spent the time by sleeping for a while,
chatted with some people over there, had free sambar rice distributed by TTD.
After this wait of 6 hrs, observing people around, realized that folks who
bought 300 rupees advance darshan tickets are no different from these. Men
& women belonging to all type of classes were present and in both cases,
people were fighting to get in line for food, darshan, losing patience over
petty things.
Exactly at 11 PM, we were
allowed for the darshanam. When the queue reached near the main temple walls,
not sure if that was a pre-recorded voice or a live one, there was continuous
voice being heard from speakers. The male voice was enthusiastic, making people
smile with his small sarcasms, jokes, warnings to take care of things &
babies in 4 or 5 different languages. Combined with a bit of cold and pleasant
air, it made me forget the walk & wait. I was out by 11.54 PM post
darshanam which meant I had to stay for couple of hours to take a bus downhill
to reach Tirupati. It was the first time that I had such late night Tirumala
visit.
The ghat road would be opened
by 2 AM that night instead of 3 AM. I took my time to have some food, go around
for buying small things. The food joints were open, people having rice items at
1 AM, shops were open, all around were people. Wah..!
I checked with the food
joint guy to see if he will ever close his place in a given day. He replied that
the place is closed between 2 to 3 AM for cleaning but apart from that, they
will be serving food all the time since there are always people.
I decided to reach and stay
back in Tirupati, have a good sleep, and then leave home after having lunch. I
wanted to take a nap in the bus itself which would start at 2 AM. The tickets
aren’t supposed to be issued inside the bus but can be procured through a
counter at bus stand. After watching people getting mad at each other to buy
the ticket first, it was impossible for me to get one without a proper queue at
the counter. I took a shared taxi costing 75 rupees to reach Tirupati bus
stand. The driver told me that they hardly sleep at nights except for some
power naps in between because they will be going around the hill also for
smaller trips when the ghat road closes.
I took a small room in
Tirupati, slept for a solid 5 hrs, and then had a good breakfast. Visited
Govindarajaswamy temple and Tirupati museum opposite to it. Lot of details were
present in the museum. Walked around a bit before having lunch in Sri
Venkateswara Deluxe hotel instead of Bhimas since the former was featured in
Highway on my plate – Rocky & Mayur. Food was decent but not up-to
Bhimas standard. Took a Volvo bus this time to return home which was very
comfortable for a good & exact 3 Hrs sleep.
On the whole, the trip told
me that:
-- Tirumala is always up & running.
-- People’s behavior remains the same –
whether buying a 300 rupee ticket or going for free darshanam.
-- Huge efforts are put into maintaining
Tirumala clean – especially the public restrooms. Was truly impressed about
this especially since there are always people floating on the hill.
-- More or less Tirupati also runs 24/7
but when compared to Tirumala, Tirupati rests for some time.
The two of the three main
things which I initially planned were not accomplished:
-- Sitting in the first seat of the bus
going downhill.
-- Lunch in Bhimas
“పునః దర్శన ప్రాప్తిరస్తు”
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