This was long overdue. I still can't believe that it had been more than 2 years since I last visited Thirumala. It definitely had to happen before I started one of the most important phases of my life.
So on a beautiful Saturday morning, Bala and myself left from our house in my SX4. We picked up Srinath and Pande in Malleswaram and then Lakshman at Krishnarajapuram. By the time we left Bangalore it was already 7 AM. The weather was excellent and the traffic was sparse. Perfect driving conditions. These conditions spurred a range of topics from politics to cricket, and the discussions were as usual well balanced and informative.
After our breakfast at Palamner, our next stop was in Kanipakam Vinayaka Temple. The temperature was in the higher 30's by now and our darshan was also delayed. But all of us were really patient, and in the end we had a very good darshan.
Our next stop was Srinivasa Mangapuram, on the way to Tirupati. Legend has it that, if you pray for a life companion here, you will immediately find one. Since I was in no hurry to find one, I prayed for a wonderful life for my brother and sister in law. The deity was wonderfully decorated. And the place was so clam that my mind was almost instantly in peace. This deity infuses a lot of "bhakti" in a person.
We were slightly behind schedule due to bad roads and we were trying to play catch up. We reached Tirupati around lunch time, and immediately went into Bhimas restaurant for a completely authentic Andhra meal. After lots of rice and pappum, we started to look out for accommodations. Either they were expensive or dint have car park. Since I was very particular about the car park, we kept on searching.
After looking a few places, we were fed up and decided to visit Govindaraja patna. Surprisingly Tirupati was so less crowded, we almost felt we were in the wrong place. There was minimum queue for everything, nothing more than a Saturday queue at Ragigudda. So every Darshan was super quick. After Govindaraja patna, we continued our search for a accommodation. Finally we landed up on one with both a car park and also well within our budget. The rooms were decent, nothing much to mention about it, although the mattresses could have been better. But the room search had eaten into our plans and we were so behind that we had to drop Sree Kalahasti.
We next went to Tirchoor Alamelu Mangamma temple, wife of Lord Srinivasa. Yet again we had a super fast darshan and started to hope that the crowd is sparse in Thirumala too. It was night by the time we came back from Padmavati. Our hotel was on a one way. And we dint know how to reach it. Due to our arrogance and stupidity, we decided to find the way on our own without local help. And that was a BIG mistake. We ended up in a dead-end on the 10 feet road, with heavy two wheeler traffic. SX4 being a shockingly big vehicle, reversing it out for 100 meters or so in that traffic was an achievement. After that we asked for directions and reached the right road. We had light dinner, owing to the lunch in Bhima's, which was equivalent to 3 normal meals in terms of quantity. Since we had to get up early next day, we all crashed as soon as we reached the room.
Next day morning we got up at 3:30 AM. As usual Srinath was the lazy bugger who got up last. Everyone was ready by 4:45 AM. And we reached Alapiri by 4:55. And as per our plan we started the climb by 5 AM. We were at the Galigopuram by 6. The climb till Galigopuram is the toughest. But it is the most beautiful climb too. Although you are surrounded by people, you feel alone. It is the time I always use for introspection. You can feel the first sun rays filtering through the clouds, experience the wonderful chirping sounds of the birds, listen to your own breath. The smell "kunkum" and camphor is solacing. This climb will take you to your pinnacle of devotion. It can make an atheist a God loving person.
We were there at Galigopuram by 5:45. Now TTD is giving free darshan tickets to climbers, so that they can have a darshan as soon as they finish the climb. I personally felt it was a great gesture. After getting the ticket, we continued our climb. The rest of the climb is realtively easy and we asked each other a lot of lateral thinking questions. We reached the top at 7:45 AM. It was a decent paced climb. Once on top, we found a room to take a quick bath (through influence :( ) After that we headed to Mayura restaurant for a breakfast which later turned out to be brunch.
We headed for the Free Cloak room, which turned out to be heavily crowded and took almost 1 hour to deposit our bags. Next we joined the darshan queue. We instantly knew that it was not the normal Tirupati crowd and our darshan would be super smooth. And we weren't wrong. The whole darshan took just 2 hours. We got a couple of lucky breaks in the queue which helped us save atleast 40 minutes. But the entire trip was more than worth for the 10 odd seconds. The prasadam was as usual mouth watering. We collected the laddus and took a jeep back to Tirupati.
Once back in Tirupati, we checked out of the room, and headed straight towards Bangalore. The drive was by itself uneventful. It took approx 6 hours with half hour break. I reached home by 10:30 and had the most amazing sleep ever.
So on a beautiful Saturday morning, Bala and myself left from our house in my SX4. We picked up Srinath and Pande in Malleswaram and then Lakshman at Krishnarajapuram. By the time we left Bangalore it was already 7 AM. The weather was excellent and the traffic was sparse. Perfect driving conditions. These conditions spurred a range of topics from politics to cricket, and the discussions were as usual well balanced and informative.
After our breakfast at Palamner, our next stop was in Kanipakam Vinayaka Temple. The temperature was in the higher 30's by now and our darshan was also delayed. But all of us were really patient, and in the end we had a very good darshan.
Our next stop was Srinivasa Mangapuram, on the way to Tirupati. Legend has it that, if you pray for a life companion here, you will immediately find one. Since I was in no hurry to find one, I prayed for a wonderful life for my brother and sister in law. The deity was wonderfully decorated. And the place was so clam that my mind was almost instantly in peace. This deity infuses a lot of "bhakti" in a person.
We were slightly behind schedule due to bad roads and we were trying to play catch up. We reached Tirupati around lunch time, and immediately went into Bhimas restaurant for a completely authentic Andhra meal. After lots of rice and pappum, we started to look out for accommodations. Either they were expensive or dint have car park. Since I was very particular about the car park, we kept on searching.
After looking a few places, we were fed up and decided to visit Govindaraja patna. Surprisingly Tirupati was so less crowded, we almost felt we were in the wrong place. There was minimum queue for everything, nothing more than a Saturday queue at Ragigudda. So every Darshan was super quick. After Govindaraja patna, we continued our search for a accommodation. Finally we landed up on one with both a car park and also well within our budget. The rooms were decent, nothing much to mention about it, although the mattresses could have been better. But the room search had eaten into our plans and we were so behind that we had to drop Sree Kalahasti.
We next went to Tirchoor Alamelu Mangamma temple, wife of Lord Srinivasa. Yet again we had a super fast darshan and started to hope that the crowd is sparse in Thirumala too. It was night by the time we came back from Padmavati. Our hotel was on a one way. And we dint know how to reach it. Due to our arrogance and stupidity, we decided to find the way on our own without local help. And that was a BIG mistake. We ended up in a dead-end on the 10 feet road, with heavy two wheeler traffic. SX4 being a shockingly big vehicle, reversing it out for 100 meters or so in that traffic was an achievement. After that we asked for directions and reached the right road. We had light dinner, owing to the lunch in Bhima's, which was equivalent to 3 normal meals in terms of quantity. Since we had to get up early next day, we all crashed as soon as we reached the room.
Next day morning we got up at 3:30 AM. As usual Srinath was the lazy bugger who got up last. Everyone was ready by 4:45 AM. And we reached Alapiri by 4:55. And as per our plan we started the climb by 5 AM. We were at the Galigopuram by 6. The climb till Galigopuram is the toughest. But it is the most beautiful climb too. Although you are surrounded by people, you feel alone. It is the time I always use for introspection. You can feel the first sun rays filtering through the clouds, experience the wonderful chirping sounds of the birds, listen to your own breath. The smell "kunkum" and camphor is solacing. This climb will take you to your pinnacle of devotion. It can make an atheist a God loving person.
We were there at Galigopuram by 5:45. Now TTD is giving free darshan tickets to climbers, so that they can have a darshan as soon as they finish the climb. I personally felt it was a great gesture. After getting the ticket, we continued our climb. The rest of the climb is realtively easy and we asked each other a lot of lateral thinking questions. We reached the top at 7:45 AM. It was a decent paced climb. Once on top, we found a room to take a quick bath (through influence :( ) After that we headed to Mayura restaurant for a breakfast which later turned out to be brunch.
We headed for the Free Cloak room, which turned out to be heavily crowded and took almost 1 hour to deposit our bags. Next we joined the darshan queue. We instantly knew that it was not the normal Tirupati crowd and our darshan would be super smooth. And we weren't wrong. The whole darshan took just 2 hours. We got a couple of lucky breaks in the queue which helped us save atleast 40 minutes. But the entire trip was more than worth for the 10 odd seconds. The prasadam was as usual mouth watering. We collected the laddus and took a jeep back to Tirupati.
Once back in Tirupati, we checked out of the room, and headed straight towards Bangalore. The drive was by itself uneventful. It took approx 6 hours with half hour break. I reached home by 10:30 and had the most amazing sleep ever.
