Srivathsa | Tirupathi, AP, India | 26-Mar-2011
A surprise call from my father-in-law marked the beginning of the thought process for the sudden trip to the abode of God, Tirupathi. It was a usual Friday morning, with no major plans for the weekend, when I received the call from Aruna's Dad, inviting us for a Darshan of Lord Balaji at Tirumala. A text from my wife confirmed my acceptance for the invitation. Right away, booked the train ticket towards, Tirupathi and regrettably none was available for the homecoming journey.
The train to Tirupathi from Chennai Central was at 16:35 and we were just done with the "Thevasam" of our Grandfather. We (Aruna and I) were stuffing the gear, all that were necessary for the short trip, with a single night stay. After a trigger to the mood dislocation at home, things didn’t work out my way, even at the ATM. Also wasn’t feeling very well in mind and body. But then, it didn’t matter much and we were on the go.
On boarding the bus, 18D, little did we realize that it was a direct bus to the Railway station and it out of the blue, struck us, when one of the co-passengers asked for a ride to the Central. Aruna was animated. It took us 35 minutes to reach the destination and just after that, we had to walk a while along the sun hit, dirty platform numbered seven. Aruna was thrilled to see the first class coach, which we first thought was air conditioned. Alas! It wasn’t. Aruna grabbed a bottle of Fanta and we boarded the train after a few minutes of look out at the seat in the platform.
When the train moved, we found that we had only a sitting space in the whole coupe allotted to us in the first class. Credits to the TTR, who was a short, hard spoken and to some extent differently abled man. Everyone who boarded with a pass would effortlessly persuade him to get a seat near us. After a while of obnoxious irritation, at Arakonam, we were offered a nice small coupe within the compartment that could be locked from the inside. It was nice place. I was just briefing up most of my experience from my past dreamlike memories in the Unites States of America. It was at Renigunta, the train halted for almost an hour, delaying our hand reachable destination. The station also reminded us of the film with a same name, which made Aruna describe the story of it. We, then opened up the aluminium box wrapped curd rice, sprayed with mango pieces from home for our dinner. We had it. Well, I had most of it. It just took ten minutes to reach Tirupati station when the train started.
Grabbing a bottle of purified water from the station, we came across the road to get into a bus that could take us to Tirumala. Sitting beside us in the three seated rustic old bus was a lady, who chewed tobacco all the time, talked in tamil and telugu, and essentially boorish. It was almost an irksome up hill journey for Aruna , who had headache due to hunger, which I attribute to my consumption of most of the food in the evening. Nevertheless, there was this particular incident, when the security at the Tirumala up hill entrance, checked the whole of the bus. Just after she went, our stupendous (I'm being sarcastic (for those who do not understand)) , dragged out a bag of tobacco, hidden under our seat (yes right beneath us). Let she live a long life. (Again sarcasm).
Reaching Tirumala, Aruna called up dad to know the route to Ram Bageecha (did I spell it right?), Block I, were he had booked a room for the night stay. It was a brisk night walk after buying a pack of biscuits and a couple of bananas. On the way, Aruna's hunger let her finish the bananas. Reached the room to find it a quiet, nice, large and slightly cold place. My father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law's were asleep. One thing that didn’t let me sleep was the ominous series of mosquito bites all over my hands, face and neck. We all got up at 2:30 AM, for everyone to get readied up, which we did.
After the hurry burry running to the entry, where we were asked to wait near the Vaikuntam I queue, by dad's friend who had arranged for a special Darshan, we waited for around ten minutes to get into the Rs. 300 queue, where we were specially interrupted by policeman to help us reach the Darshan of the magnificent looking, "thomalai" wearing, ever effervescent LORD VENKATACHALAPATHY. The crowd went on "Govinda Govinda" and it was that 1 minute glimpse that made our day (or rather our lifetime). After the darshan of other deities around the "prakaram", we came out to get the "prasadam" (small laddu).
My father in law and I went together, to fetch the Laddus (the bigger ones) asking others to wait over a corner. With the 300 Rupees ticket, getting the laddus were easier that day. We then moved on to get the cellular phone from the policeman. We returned back to see, others left the place. We then reached the coffee shop, only to find, Aruna do others sipping down the hot tea/coffee from the roadside teashop. I liked it, not only the tea, but the atmosphere on the whole. Back at the room in ten minutes, we all dozed off for around two hours. We needed it. Just after we got up, all of us went down to have the breakfast at the Hotel named Srivathsa (after me?? That was a deadpan expression on my face, while I write this). But just before that we (Aruna and I) had to make a tricky decision, if we have to stay for the "Kalyana Utsavam" that my in laws are participating in. Taking into account the vital factor of reaching late to Chennai, we decided to leave home, just after the breakfast. But even then, I felt slightly bad for Aruna's dad, who was consistently inviting us for the "Utsavam".
Right after the breakfast, walked a bit to reach to the bus downhill. It took us 45 minutes to reach the bus stand, which was right next to the interstate buses (I mean the buses to Chennai and Bangalore). It was hot and my wife grabbed a 7 up bottle. We went up and down the counter to find tickets. I was asked to get a token, just after a bus arrives. I did. We got into the so called "Ultra Deluxe" bus, but honestly it was pretty good. It was high noon, when the engine roared for the start. Tired, Aruna took long naps. I really do not know, what I was doing (day dreaming, half sleep??? Thinking). All I know was, I was idle. The bus stop for a while at one of the better restaurants, where we had our lunch (curd rice), with an edgy fear of bus' departure. The bus reached Chennai , Koyambedu at 3:15 PM and we had to walk a long way to the local bus stand , due the pointless , recklessly maintained traffic nuisance at the entry. It was so very sultry, when we got into the bus to Velachery and then to Madipakkam. We deserved a rich taste of tea, when we reached home, as my head was exploding with its imploding ache. Sitting back now and thinking about the weekend, for which I was totally unprepared, it did go pretty awesome and what more can you expect than Himself giving a glimpse of his starling darshan?
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