65 - A day at Tirupati
In
late October, my wife said that she wanted to go to Tirupati in December. As I had
taken up an assignment at that time that had a 6-day work-week, we decided to
do it on a Sunday. She booked the online
slot for darshan for 16th December and I booked the flight tickets
for the same day. I booked the flight
tickets for early morning and late night so that in case there is crowd for the
darshan, we might still be able to catch the last flight to Hyderabad for our
return journey.
On
16th we caught the 7am flight and landed by 815am at Tirupati. I had already booked a self-drive car at Tirupati. As the car site was between the airport and
the temple, we took an auto to the site and got our car. Out slot for darshan was at 1pm, so we had
breakfast and went to the Tiruchanur temple.
After the darshan, we went to Tirupati.
Before our climb to the temple site, one lady from CRPF asked for a lift
to the temple site. We took her with us. During the climb she asked us to stop in between
and showed us a site which looked similar to the Balaji deity and was formed on
the rocks. She said this has been there
for centuries. This was the first time
we were hearing or seeing it. I took a picture
of it and it is shared below – the image and the deity zoomed-in. Helping others is always good!! You get to
learn new things! While coming back, we
gave lift to 3 more people. And that was
just a lift!! But don’t let that deter you
from helping people😊.
You never know what you might receive back, which may be
far greater than what you did to receive it!!
After
reaching the summit, we went to see the Varahaswami temple. There was a small crowd, but we were able to
complete the darshan in half an hour. By
exactly 1pm, we were in the entrance for our slot. After some brisk walking for some 2 minutes,
we were surprised to see a crowd waiting in Room No 36 and our further progress
stopped there!! We were wondering, if we
are in Room 36 and we could see Room 35 also from where we were standing, it
will take a lot of time to reach Room 1 and then exit for Darshan!! Things started rotating in my head as to how
much time it will take, whether we will be able to give the car back, whether we
will be able to catch the flight back and so on…
After half an hour of standing there, my leg was starting to pain
and I had still not recovered from the injury.
Just when I was contemplating to sit on the ground, the door of Room 35
opened and the crowd started moving.
Fortunately, Room No 34 was the last room and we exited to an open area
and began following the line. In the
next half an hour, we had reached the main shrine, had darshan and were out of
the temple!! It took just an hour from
the entrance to exit for the Darshan!
We collected the laddoos and then proceed for lunch. Since our flight was in the evening, we decided
to visit Sri Kalahasti. On a slight
miscalculation, thinking it to be about 20 kms away, we proceeded on the journey. It turned out to be about 40 kms from Upper
Tirupati! Just when I was about to think
of missing the flight, I got an sms from the airline saying that the flight has
been delayed and it will depart with a delay of 1.5 hours!!
Since it was a Sunday, traffic was reasonably ok. We had a nice darshan at Sri Kalahasti too
and started to come back to Tirupati. While
starting to come back, it was dark and I could not get the headlights of the
car to start!! It was a Ford Figaro vehicle. I tried all sorts of combinations to “on” the
headlights but failed. I then called my cousin
in Chennai, who had a Ford vehicle, and asked him how to “on” the
headlights. He told me what to do, but
due to some miscommunication I was not able to comprehend what he was
saying. There was a small knob in a big
knob in the car. He was asking me to
turn the big knob in clockwise direction and I was turning the small knob😊. After a few minutes of
this, I told him I will manage on my own.
I then put on the “straight drive” sign and drove for some 5-10 minutes on
the road. Then I saw 2-3 vehicles parked
on the side of the road. I stopped and
asked them to help me out. They
immediately told me how to “on” the headlight!!
Having learned another new thing, I proceeded to Tirupati!
We came back and delivered the car back by 8pm. After their inspection, we hurried to the
airport in an auto. Luckily, the flight delay
extended by another half an hour and we were able to catch the return flight to
Hyderabad.
That day reminded me of the famous dialogue from the movie Om Shanti
Om – Kehte hain agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho, to poori kainaat usey tumse
milaane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai!!
Cheers!!
Today’s Daffy Definition
Public Opinion – What people think people think!!
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