Trip to Tirupathi

Well had been to one of the most visited place in India, the Tirumala Tirupathi Temple. My in-laws have been planning to vist that place for quite some time but it never materialised, and so this time I planned the trip for them and all of us were there on 19th. The lord there is Re-incarnation of Vishnu and is also popularly known as Balaji

First time I went was when I was about 12 yrs old, that was 18 yrs back and hence absolutely no memory of that place and the trip. This is a temple where an estimated 30,000 people visit every day of the year. I was throughly surprised by the way the temple is organised and maintained. Totally clean and well managed. It's all hi-tech now with ccd cameras, pc's and electronic surveillance equipments. Amazing. We had the Lord's Darshan at around 6.45 in the morning. We were there in the queue from 4.00 in the morning and by the time we came out quite exhausted but pleasantly surprised. We could get about 20 secs in front of the God, which is some record of sorts. That was because it was so early in the morning. During the day people would get about 3- 5 secs in front of the God.

We were told that it was one of those lucky days. Since Friday happens to be the day of 'Sukra' which has association with Goddess Lakshmi who happens to tbe wife of Lord Vishnu, it was supposed to be special. Also on that day the statue was devoid of all the pomp and the splendour of Jewellery. Just cleaned,washed and naked. Somehow it felt very satisfying. A very calm and pleasant energy was felt in spite of so many people around or maybe I felt it because it was very early in the morning and it just felt good. A trip to Tirupathi is incomplete without visiting the temple of Goddess Padmavathi, wife of Tirupathi Balaji, reincarnation of Goddess Lakshmi. Since it was a Friday, it was totally packed and crowded.

The Tirupathi Tirumala is located on top of a hill. The funniest trip that happened on the trip was when the bus starts to climb the hill. Just before the climb, the norm is to pass through a security cordon. No instructions were given by the travel agent before we boarded the smaller bus. Couple of cops, walked in and started checking bags and pockets. Three guys had cigarette packets on them.The cops just took it and walked off without uttering anything. Those guys (One an American Desi) who owned the packs did'nt have a clue at all. We were told later that Cigarette packs are not allowed on the top of the hill and in and around the temple. What was hilarious, was it was not mentioned, if so people would have atleast left it in their hotel rooms and the cops just walked away with the Cigarette packs.