Tirupathi & Kalahasthi

Revisiting my blog after a while - almost a month, to be precise ....

Deadlines at work as well as time spent on doing an update of my resume and doing some job hunt took some toll out of my blogging time. Also, on the personal front, I managed to sneek in some time to make a visit to Tirupathi and Kalahasti with my wife.

The only aim for the travel is to perform the Rahu-Ketu Sarpa nivarana pooja at Kalahasthi - I could have very well avoided this, but pressure from both sides of Gen W (Gen X - 1) was increasing and had to do the pooja for their satisfaction atleast. And since Tirupathi is near to the place, we decided to take a trip there also to have a rendezvous with Mr. Balaji.

We got the tickets from ITDC, but the bus for our trip was provided by APTDC. The bus started from the Race Course Road office, Bangalore at around 9.50 pm - the scheduled bus time was 10 pm - but since we were the last to come in, they didn't wait for the specified time and they started the bus - this was really a positive appreciation on the organizers part.

The bus was not good - a few mosquitoes even tasted us - we were a bit worried with the vast spread of chikungunya & dengue in various parts of India. Luckily we didn't get one for free!!! The bus was not that comfortable. Inspite of a 30 minute break at 11 for dinner, the driver landed us at Tirupathi at around 3.45 in the morning. Half asleep, we checked into the hotel of APTDC. The rooms were neat and had three cots - we had just enough time to stretch our legs, take bath and get ready. Great that they provided nice hot water for the bath, else it would have been a bit difficult to take a cold shower at 4 in the morning.

Next, we were taken to Tiruchanoor to the Alamelu Manga Temple. We were told that we will be taken for a special seva after the morning abhishekam. but inspite of that, we had to wait in the queue for about 2 hours before we were let into the sanctum sanctorum together with people from other queues. It was totally frustrating to wait for two hours without any worthwhile task and more frustrating was the fact that we did not even have a proper rest before starting to the temple - I think the organizers have to work on this time management to provide a more satisfactory experience to the tourists.

After the darshan at the temple, we were taken to the TTD's Sreenivasam Complex at Tirupathi for our breakfast. Unfortunately, there was only one restuarant and that too we had to have a self-service for our food. This was totally a ridiculous approach given the fact that there is a lot of visitors / tourists coming to Tirupathi staying at the complex. I think the APTDC / TTD have to look into this for a better approach to the tourists. But, inspite of the less choice of food, the taste was really good.

After the breakfast, we had a change of bus - only specially designed 'ghat eligible' buses (apart from cars, jeeps, etc.) were allowed over the ghat route to Tirumala. After reaching Tirumala after a solid 45 minute+ journey, we were asked to deposit our electronic items at a shop that had some sort of an understanding with the tourist organizers. After that, people, who were interested to tonsure their head were taken to the place for the same.

Generally, it is the Kalyana Kata, where the main tonsuring takes place. But, a heavy rush is generally prevalent there and hence we were taken to another small - but not so neat place. After having my hair tonsured and a post-tonsure bath, we joined the rest of the batch to get into the temple. Since the package cost also included a Rs.100/- darshan ticket, we stayed in the queue for only about a hour-and-half to get the darshan of the opulent Balaji. During the stay in line, we had a chat with some other devotees in the free darshan line. It was shocking to hear that they had come to the temple at 9 pm the previous day and they were told that they would be having the darshan only at around 9 pm tonight. But, luckily, they had a darshan almost at the same time like us - around 11.30 am.

Finishing the darshan, we were taken once again through the ghat route to Tiurpathi for our lunch at the same place. Since me & my wife had plans of going to Kalahasthi and the package did not include that, we took a break from the package.

We had thoughts of booking a room for the night at Sreenivasam and then visiting Kalahasthi the next day morning, but the 30-minute or so wait at the booking counter at Sreenivasam, made us change our plans. We checked in our locked luggage in the cloak room over there, booked the tickets for a Volvo bus to Bangalore and proceeded to have our lunch, get refreshed a bit and then start to Kalahasthi in the evening. The sun was scorching hot and even walking the half -a-kilometer distance from Sreenivasam to the bus stand was very tiring and sweating. Getting to Kalahasthi was by a town bus from Tirupati. It was a solid 45 mintue journey in the hot sun, in a crowded bus, stopping at a lot of places en route, we reached Kalahasti at around 5.45 pm.

We waited for a few mintues for getting the pooja tickets. There are three categories of tickets - Rs.250/-, Rs. 500/- & Rs. 1000/-. The least one was done in a batch and only one priest would be presiding over the whole batch and then following the pooja, we would be allowed for a free darshan of the deities. The next level had the option that the pooja was performed in a separate hall and then the devotees allowed a special darshan and also given a set of prasadham that included some cloth material and some ladu & vada. The next level had the special service - the pooja was conducted inside the main temple premises with a separate priest for each of the ticket purchasers and also the special priveleges of darshan and prashadham (as the Rs.500/-) was also applicable.

The pooja was almost like a timetable followed procedure. The pooja tickets included a bag of pooja items that included three coconuts, a few betel leaves, some flowers, a pair of small cloth strips - one in red and the other in black, and small idols of Rahu, Ketu. The notice boards at the ticket counter specifically said that there was no need to buy any additional pooja items. But actually, we had to get a bag of lotus flowers, Vilvam leaves and a pair of lamps.

The pooja took only 30 mintues followed by the darshan of the main deities at the temple. Following the darshan, we took a bus to Tirupathi and reached Sreenivasam at around 8.45 pm. Once again, we didn't have a choice for our dinner, but the APSTDC restuarant. Finishing the dinner, we had enough time to catch the Volvo to Bangalore starting at 10.45 from there amd reaching the garden city at around 4 in the morning!!!