Tirupathi and Sri Kalahasthi visit I

Hmmm... Din't blog for quite a while, as usual. Now, I have got something to write about. Some 6 of us (I, Anand & Ram Prasad, Sriram, Srini and Venkatesh) went to Tirupathi and SriKalahasthi. Here are our experiences and adventures :)

From Bangalore:
Our bus to Tirupathi was on Jul 20, 2007 (Friday), 22:30. I left office by the 18:15 shuttle. RP's house was our meeting point. I, Venkatesh and Sriram reached there by 21:00, Srini also reached there and we went to Majestic by auto(2). On the way, Srini made an attempt to talk in Telugu over phone, with the person who was arranging things for us in Tirupathi. That is when he used Tamilo-Telugu words like "Kilambisthaanu", which catalysed the other person to talk in Tamil, fearing further damage to his beloved mother tongue. I take this opportunity to request Srini not to talk in Telugu any more, at least with people who know Telugu. :). The bus departed at 23:00 from Majestic.

Bugs in Bus:
Keeping in pace with the Indian IT, even the buses have become Tech savvy. The volvo bus we travelled in had "bugs". Whether in software or any where, bugs sure suck. Not only was I a victim but also many other people who were occupying the window seat. I lost sleep and it was very heartening to see the bus reach Tirpuathi in just 4.5 hours. But I was happy with myself, when I woke Anand (sitting next to me) from deep sleep and asked him whether he was also experiencing bug bites :)

In Tirupathi:
Our first agenda was to get a room for 2 hrs for the 6 of us to get ready (answer calls from nature, take bath etc). An agent (if you can call him so) approached us and suggested some places. Firstly, we tried to avoid him. Sriram, in fact, took us along the road, saying, there are many hotels this side, but found only thorny bushes and hence we all turned back and took a place that the agent suggested. It was not bad, given the fact that we were going to use it for not more than 2 hrs. After getting ready, we took a big auto and reached Alipiri (the foothills from where one can start the ascent to Tirumala). We started ascending at 06:10.

The Ascent:
All 6 of us climbed by steps. It was a nice experience as expected. We were celebrating after covering each 1000th step and each km. Total 3550 steps and 9 km. Again, Srini surprised me with his speed of climibing. I could realize that I am growing older :). Eventually, we reached Tirumala around 10:30.

The Darshan:
The person who arranged everything for us, suggested that we go for darshan immediately owing to the rush. So we joined the Q at around 11:00. There we got split into 3 groups (RP & Venkatesh; I, Anand & Srini; Sriram)in the magnitude of the Q. The three groups came out at different times after darshan. It was an amazing sight always to see Him. A great experience. Special thanks to Srini for this.

The birth of "Rules" Ramanujam:
In the queue, two of the groups tried to be Romans in Rome. But Sriram dared to be different. He was much behind and hence came out after more than 30 min and asked Srini "Padichavan thaane nee?". This will go down as the statement of the trip and Sriram will always be remembered for this. There were some arguments there as all of us were hungry and tired. But these are part and parcel of any get together (especially trips), nothing will be memorable without happenings like these :)

The "sleep" and dinner:
We had a not so great lunch. Luckily, we got a guest house booked for us and had a GREAT sleep. During that time Srini got his tonsure done and became the "MOTTAI" Boss and four (except I and Anand) got their tickets for AngaPradhakshinam for the next day. We came back to the guest house after a nice dinner....

The remaining trip will be covered in the part II...

Om Namo Venkatesaya...

Bye!!