Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Trip to Tirupati

Date: Sometime in May
Last month we travelled to Tirupati and Kalahasti over one weekend and Wayanad and Mysore over other weekend.


Will share the pictures soon.
On 17 April (Sunday), we left for Tirupati by taxi by 8 am. We had made the bookings for stay and pooja (Kalyanoutsavam daily seva). The drive was good.

Took a stop in between for lunch and reached Tirupati by 1-2 pm. I don’t remember exactly when we reached.. but it was noon time. After reaching, we checked into the guest house. Papa had made the bookings from akola. It had good rooms. We took rest till 3 pm and then left for darshan to tirumala. We took the 300 Rs ticket the first day. There was not much rush. So, we were out by 5.30 pm. One stupid thing happened with us. We were in a hurry to get inside the temple so we kept our chappals outside the temple. All of us had so much faith in God and the place that all of us thought the chappals are safe outside without a guard. We had good darshan inside. We took darshan, then collected the prasadam and nicely sat at the ghat and had tea and all. I was completely soaked into the serenity there and didn’t want to move. It was already around 7 pm. And everybody wanted to move. I wanted to see the dance there that was being offered to God and played on the big screen. Papa said, lets collect the chappals and come back if you wish to… When we reached the place where we had kept the chappals, we saw that there were two pairs of chappals – Manish and Eva’s only. Other 4 pairs were missing. To note here that there were atleast 20 pairs more when we had kept there.. But now, only 2 old pairs of chappals were left which nobody wanted  (Not even their owners).

Ashish got angry since his was the most costly among us (4k Nike shoes). Papa’s shoes were just 1 week old and so were Mummy ‘s and mine.
Then we went to Tirupati, bought new chappals and then went to hotel Mayura for a good dinner. Next day, got ready quickly by 8 am and then reached tirumala. Joined the queue for the daily seva. That seva was performed by atleast 500 couples together in a big mandapam. Lot of chanting (which I didn’t understand). I only understood that it was the marriage of Lord Malayappa swami (i.e. Lord Venkateshwara) to Bhoodevi and Sridevi. After the 2 hour pooja, we were also given priviledged darshan of the main temple as well.
We were out by 1.30pm. Then we headed back to Tirupati. After having lunch, we headed towards SriKalaHasti temple – a very ancient temple. Took darshan there. We also wanted to go to Golden temple – Narayani temple. But it was already 7pm. So dropped the plan and headed back to Bangalore. Reached by 12.30-1am.
At the end of the day, I would want to go again to Tirupati and just sit there outside near the Kund and have a heavenly experience…