srivari
My brother got recruited in CTS and he had gone home. Out of the blue we planned to go to Tirupathi, since it was long time we had been there (almost 12 years). My Dad got tickets booked from Raichur to Tirupathi on 10 August 2006, with lots of difficulty I managed to get leave on Friday (12 Aug), I started from Bangalore @ 7.30 sharp from office. Got myself one ticket to Tirupathi at 10 pm and started towards Tirupathi.
August 11 2006
Reached Tirupathi on Friday morning @ 5 am, then took a jeep to Tirumala (6.30 am). I stood in the queue for about 1 hour and finally got finger print scanned and got 50/- Rs ticket (sudarshan darshan).
My Dad had got a room booked in Sudarshan (building) Room No: 81.We left for tonsure, Dad and my brother got there head shaved.
@ 10 we went to Museum, @ around 11 we booked a jeep and went to Gopalkrishna swamy temple, later we went to Akasha Ganga, Took a family snap there,
then we went to Papavinasham and came back to room.
@ 7.30 pm sharp we left for the darshan of Lord Balaji. After a long queue I remember I saw the time in my watch; it was 9 pm when we were near the main temple and were about to get darshan.Oh my god. It was so much crowded that it is easily the most crowded place I have ever seen in my life. I don’t have any idea how aged people manage to get Darshan there. We had Darshan of Lord Balaji it was black background and the Idol of Balaji so crystal clear....vibrations were so strong from it....it has to be experienced cannot be explained. We finished darshan and came out of the main temple. I was trying to see the time.....OMG........I don’t have my watch, I had lost a watch which was with me from past 10 years (it was a black Timex aquara, got it as birthday gift when I was in 8th std, I used to sleep wearing it, I hardly used to take it off my hand. May be its days were over). Yet another queue and then we got prasadam, and then there was another long queue for free meals, we were not prepared to be in the queue for some more time and had food in some restaurant and were back to room after such an hectic day.
August 12 2006
We got ready and vacated room @ 11 am, and started towards Tirupathi from the hill on bus, this was one horrible experience on bus with many hairpin curves. OMG.
We were in Tirupathi @ 12 noon, had some rest in bus stand, my sister was totally tired. We knew we cant travel on bus anymore, so Dad got an Auto-Rickshaw then we headed towards Mangapuram (7 kms from Tirupathi).Yet another queue here for darshan this queue was for some 1 hour, then we had darshan of Mangamma (Balaji`s wife),during darshan I complained her that her husband (Balaji) had taken my watch, then we went to Govindarajpatanam, We had darshan of MahaLakshmi, Lord GovindaRaju, Partha Sarathi and cant remember, the queues were relatively very small and were not crowded, During the darshan of Goddess Mahalaksmi I asked my sister if I should complain about watch here as well, She told me not to because Mahalaksmi will get me new one and not the old one so did not complain here.
We did some shopping and were in Tirupathi railway station @ 6.30 pm, there I got my ticket to Bangalore reserved for 9.30 pm mysore passenger (waiting list 67), My parents, brother and sister left to Raichur @ 7.30 pm on Rayalseema express, Then after some time I checked the status of my ticket OMG cant believe, it was confirmed (S5-71).Later I slept in train....and was heading towards Bangalore after an amazingly interesting experience. Train reached Bangalore at 9.30 am can’t believe that train took exactly 12 hours to travel 250 kms (app 20 kms/per hr).
Tips of experience:
1: Don’t wear any watches, gold chains, or carry wallet, when you are going for darshan.
2: Its always better to go on a jeep(or private vehicle) rather than bus from Tirupathi to Tirumala, but from Tirumala to Tirupathi Never ever think of coming down on bus, as there are more then 25 hairpin curves...and I cannot tell the state of the person when the bus comes down better take a jeep.
3: If possible get archana anantaram ticket (220/-) for darshan of Balaji .Sudarshan darshan (50/- Rs) will take minimum of 3 hours, forget about sarvadarshan (free) it may take days. One better option will be to go as a Sevadal.
4: I bet Tirumala is got to be the most densely populated place on planet earth.
Finally, Govinda, Govinda……………..no matter what, when Balaji calls you, you got be going there no one can stop you from seeing him. It was my turn along with my family. That’s how my fourth trip to Tirupathi was.
Thank U god..... I got a similar watch later.