This blog is about my TIRUPATI TRIP in November 2013.
The decision for trip by a quick one ( due to uncertainty
of patients ) and I was informed about it one day before. Amid my very hectic schedule
( seriously no kidding ) , I finished most of works, booked round trip
tickets on apsrtc , reached CMBT 30 mins early for a bus which started 30 mins late.
On bus , I met a CS guy from Saras and had a nice chat.
After cancelling my plan of reading VYAKTTI AND VALLI due to switching off of lights in bus, I spent most of journey listening songs on mobile (
air-plane mode , to save battery ) and reflected on on-going life. ( I tend
to do that a lot while travelling )
The bus stopped for 20mins in journey for tea brake while I
stretched my legs , after sitting cramped all evening.
I reached TIRUPATI by 10pm , by the time family
(mummy - pappa - Nikhil Bhaiya (NB) - Chintu bhaiya (CB)- ubale driver) had already reached and booked a
lodge. ( Srinivasan complex – madhavam guest house – good value for money).
I cozied up and had dinner and went back to lodge and slept
as we had to get up early.
Following morning was a DIWALI morning , having bath with
chandan saban ( god knows my bathing frequency in insti lol .. though I did end
up getting scolded for condition my hair !! )
We all dressed up and had DIWALI faral as breakfast . Soon
we left for TIRUMALA.
This was the view from lodge room , the mountains clearly
visible.
We all fit snugly in the car and drove towards the
mountains. While car was stopped for checking security , I got down and
took a couple of photos. The beauty surrounding the place is magnificient. Of all I can remember of tirupati as a kid , most of it was
these mountains , long queues and the parathas. The mountains and the curved
road all along and the fully developed area around gives you a nice feeling. I
marked the place from where people were climbing up the mountains ( next time I
come here with friends,
we sure are going that way )
The mountains , the road and the security system. ( even NB
)
On the way up , we enjoyed the beauty around and caught up
with latest news in family. NB had brought his new phone ( nexus 4, we had
purchased it in my internship period). He was all praises on the phone.
We reached TIRUMALA in some 20mins and followed the signs
there for parking the car. It was great to be back in TIRUMALA . The constantly
moving people, the smell of parathas from shops , the gift complex, the spiced up kairi , the oranged coloured TTD buses , bald
people with chandan applied ….. I was blissful small child again.
We kept all wallets, mobiles, shoes in car and left
barefoot for the Rs 300 darshan line. The crowd was all over but I, now that I
was grown up(?), found all the waiting more tolerable. CB and NB were there all the time, cracking jokes and killing time. In the
long queue I met 3-5 different kind of people and had small chat with them. One
teen girl among all was so excited knowing that I was from IITM that she asked me all kinds of
questions and her mother was eying me with a smile. NB and CB teased me all day
long about it :D
After patience-testing 4-5 hours, we completed our darshan
( which really went well ) around 3 pm, took the patented laddos, sat for a
while in the space in front of temple and then headed for the car. Papa headed for the hair-cutting center where he shaved his
head off. ( Apparently he had promised so for my selection in IIT , Parents !!!
)
I thought that he kind of looked similar to the main character in Breaking Bad – Walter white
We relaxed for some time in car, checked on score ( Ind vs Aus series final in which Rohit Sharma put 209 runs !!! ) and ate (very rough) parathas and rice.
After papa came back , we went and bought a cap for him, a Balaji portrait for hospital, my slinky ( the usual ) and
some other items.We ate the spicy kairi and then went and sat the the big
steps in front of temple watching people around.
The temple was glowing with lights and it was one hell of a
peaceful evening.
Beautiful temple in mountains.
We sat around and felt the spiritual environment around. It
was real nice after standing in line for darshan for 5-6 hrs ( not to mention
whole day travel in car for others)
People were flowing around ; some sitting peacefully like us
, some hurrying , some unknowing in the crowd.
After some time,photo session started (courtesy to NB-mobile HAD to put to use na :P ).
I captured a good photo of mummy - pappa in mist of crowd
there with temple in background.
A rare good photo , with papa smiling properly.
A small girl came along meanwhile with the bhagva (orange)
paint and white colour. After insistence of parents , we put up on our forehead
.
The symbol the girl drew was of Balaji. This lead to couple
more photos.
The engineers
The middle one , the elder and the youngest
As the photography session was going , I couldn’t resist
taking a picture of something more my way
Instagram !!!
Afterwards we had a
discussion on whether to go to Vellore for some other temple or not. I argued
that we should put peace, not just hurry around and also all were tired. For me I had a 4 hour bus journey at end but
for them it was again some 18 hours of car journey. So we final decided to put
peace.
From there, we packed everything and started back down. As
I was really tired, I felt asleep in car only to be woken up to witness what I can call one of the really awesome view. It was half way down the ghats and we could see all tirupati
lightened up with crackers bursting as it was major DIWALI night.
Cherish able moments
We reached TIRUPATI back and headed for a small restaurant
we always ate in .
It had a proper southy menu.. While others chose meals ( more
or less , same as that of Andhra mess), a got myself a big and tasty paper
dosa.
Southy-estyle
Also we saw a house while going by which beautifully
decorated.
Nice.
Food was good and everyone was full at the end.
That night we had one
hell of a sleep.
ZZzzz
The next day we got up a bit late, fresh-end up and had
darshan of TIRUPATI and some female goddess I can’t recall. ( It was Lakshmi Pujan ). We had a nice meal at Hotel Mayura and then we had an
afternoon to kill ( as I had ticket of 5pm ). We packed everybody’s stuff ,
took some panorama photos from the balcony. I packed faral, some chocolates some patient had brought from Singapore and some other stuff. We laughed a lot on ‘ hou de kharach’ jokes CB had in his
mobile.
We slept a little and
put peace. We checked out of lodge and came to RTC bus stand to drop me
off. I said good-byes and boarded the bus. The back journey was
quite peaceful as I was asleep half the time.
I reached Chennai around 9 30 pm and Insti around 11pm.
Next day I opened the faral bag to find all these
Ghar cha chiwda
Overall it was one memorable trip and made my DIWALI HAPPY.
I got break from my studies(?) at the proper time so that I
could start fresh again.
