Sunday finally arrived and i came back home early in the morning ( 10 am not early for others but for me it was early by around 2 hours) Coming back first thing i did was complete watching the movie forbidden kingdom. Later helped my uncle prepare the food for lunch.
A school friend of mine had come to attend a conference on behalf of his company and wanted to meet me. I was free and had nothing to do and wanted to meet this guy. I set forum as the rendezvous spot. It was late in the night just before the match between Mumbai Indians, my favorite team vs Deccan chargers was about to start that my frnd made his appearance.
My frnd was complaining about the number of people he found in forum and how suffocating it was for him spending time in the shoppign mall. We decided to stay outside have our little chat sitting on the slabs provded outside the mall. My frnd had a good history which i was quite aware of. Not many of my other frnds know abt it. While my background was known to many but not many people knw that they all knw it. He was with another of his frnd and me and his frnd started teasing my frnd on a gal which he allegedly had a crush on. Though we all knew for a fact he did not have any crush, but it was fun to tease him. He was sure i do not forget many things and was avoding his other frnd in spilling any beans about him of his training days. He was emo abt the whole thign and i did not want him to feel senti in that mood. After a while i stopped teasing and left him free there.
I learnt while speaking to him that Jayasurya was playing superbly and wanted to leave for room. I had reached home and by that time Jayasurya was out. It was a sorry affair. I should have spent more time with my frnd was what i thought. Finally i watched the match completely and saw Mumbai coming on top. Nadal winning the final of Rome masters which he lost last year to Federrer his opponent this time too.
I had not watched a single match in my life so far which Nadal had one convincingly. He was struggling here too inteh second set, but thanks to his guts he pulled his socks together and finished the third and final set with 6-3. After that i just went to sleep.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Weekend
Hi all..
I am here now to describe my weekend. Friday was an eventful day. Spent time knowing about myself from the perspective of others. I have a chat friend who tells me how much she detests me but by not verbalizing it too much.
Anyways one of my friend suggested me 2 movies to watch. Forbidden Kingdom and Speed racer. I had put both these for downloads. Speed racer next generation downloaded in one night. Friday morning the first thing that i did after waking up was sitting before the computer to watch the movie. It was just one hour 10 mins movie, animation. With no brains to be used fantasy movie. Not bad. Animation was decent the director seemed to have some story not a strong one. But most animation movies are only for animation part. The cars were nice though the logic for being fast cars and good ones not justified well enough.
Overall i think kids will love this movie. Next forbidden kingdom had 2 of my favorite stars. Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I did not look into the star cast before starting to watch the movie. But finally i like the star cast. The movie had some nice fights specially one which was between Jackie and Jet. Do not expect much of a story. This movie is also about fantasy. But much much better than what Myth was. Though this was missing on the Mallika Sherawat factor, but i would sugest u to watch Forbidden kingdom than Myth.
The dvd rip of forbidden kingdom was nice but i found it frustrating as some part of the movie was in Chinese without any subs. I am habituated to watching foreign movies but ones which have subtitles.
Anyways on saturday being alone utterly bored and not knowing what i wanted to do, i picked up on cleaning the house. Our maid rarely cleans our bedroom as most of the time we would be sleeping by the time she comes in the morning and in the afternoon there is no one in the house. So it has not been cleaned for a long time. Well anyways, i had decided to clean it up and so I did. I had also decided to wash bed sheets. Amazingly it turned out such that i was able to do all this stuff in like 3 hours. I thought washign bed sheets would be easy but that was tough too.
After finishing with the household chores, i had decided to go meet up with my college buddies with whom i have not met like 2 months. Just when i decided to go out, it started raining and i thought OHH not again. I mean i wanted to meet these guys but could not find time on any of the weekends and now jsut when i want to it starts raining again. Luckily i was in one of those moods where i wanted to go at any cost. Barely i moved some 100 mts and there was not trace of rain and people were staring at me (i was wearing a raincoat) like a strange object. It is summer and realy amusing when someone wears a raincoat in summer.
I avoid those unnecessary glances reach their place. These guys were swapping their rooms and i thought oh no, i do not want to do some more of the house hold work. Lucky for me they were almost done and did most of their work on their own. They stay in Indira nagar and power was cut off for most part of the day in that area as declared in newspaper earlier.
So I was at my friends place in summer where there was no electricity. They stay in the fifth floor and have a huge ventatilation in their balcony. There was good circulation of air and since we were on the fifth floor the view was also good. Though not having electricity was kinda bored, we got to sit in open air, (not caling it fresh as i do not how i can call the air fresh when i am staying in one of the most congested city and area which was closer to airport and one of the most non green, no plants around) and it was a cool breeze too.
My friend was practicing his guitar while i was just sitting with them thinking on what all i was upto the last weekend and catching up with them on what my various other illustrious people were doing. Since we were all kinda doing a decent job in our professional life and been in job for 2 years, it was common for me to hear about people getting bugged in their family to get married.
I was curious to know what these 2 guys had to say about when they were getting married and what was their future plans. One of them said he was ready for next year. While the other wanted to do a MBA and only then get married. Anyways i also go to know that another batchmate of mine from my college was already married. (He is the second one that i know of). Now that was some news for me. I did not know if sounded good or bad to my ears but i was feeling something.
Me and my guitar frnd went on a bike ride. I did not want to go again to the CCD on the mysore road once again, as i had been there twice already. We went for a good 70km ride without speeding overly. My max speed throughout was jsut around 80kmph. I would have loved to do 100kmph but could not quite bring myself to do that. It was night and the road we were on was not looking very good. My frnd bought a new bike and wanted to make most of the ride. Finally we came back and i spent the night in their apartment, leaving early in the morning on Sunday.
I am here now to describe my weekend. Friday was an eventful day. Spent time knowing about myself from the perspective of others. I have a chat friend who tells me how much she detests me but by not verbalizing it too much.
Anyways one of my friend suggested me 2 movies to watch. Forbidden Kingdom and Speed racer. I had put both these for downloads. Speed racer next generation downloaded in one night. Friday morning the first thing that i did after waking up was sitting before the computer to watch the movie. It was just one hour 10 mins movie, animation. With no brains to be used fantasy movie. Not bad. Animation was decent the director seemed to have some story not a strong one. But most animation movies are only for animation part. The cars were nice though the logic for being fast cars and good ones not justified well enough.
Overall i think kids will love this movie. Next forbidden kingdom had 2 of my favorite stars. Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I did not look into the star cast before starting to watch the movie. But finally i like the star cast. The movie had some nice fights specially one which was between Jackie and Jet. Do not expect much of a story. This movie is also about fantasy. But much much better than what Myth was. Though this was missing on the Mallika Sherawat factor, but i would sugest u to watch Forbidden kingdom than Myth.
The dvd rip of forbidden kingdom was nice but i found it frustrating as some part of the movie was in Chinese without any subs. I am habituated to watching foreign movies but ones which have subtitles.
Anyways on saturday being alone utterly bored and not knowing what i wanted to do, i picked up on cleaning the house. Our maid rarely cleans our bedroom as most of the time we would be sleeping by the time she comes in the morning and in the afternoon there is no one in the house. So it has not been cleaned for a long time. Well anyways, i had decided to clean it up and so I did. I had also decided to wash bed sheets. Amazingly it turned out such that i was able to do all this stuff in like 3 hours. I thought washign bed sheets would be easy but that was tough too.
After finishing with the household chores, i had decided to go meet up with my college buddies with whom i have not met like 2 months. Just when i decided to go out, it started raining and i thought OHH not again. I mean i wanted to meet these guys but could not find time on any of the weekends and now jsut when i want to it starts raining again. Luckily i was in one of those moods where i wanted to go at any cost. Barely i moved some 100 mts and there was not trace of rain and people were staring at me (i was wearing a raincoat) like a strange object. It is summer and realy amusing when someone wears a raincoat in summer.
I avoid those unnecessary glances reach their place. These guys were swapping their rooms and i thought oh no, i do not want to do some more of the house hold work. Lucky for me they were almost done and did most of their work on their own. They stay in Indira nagar and power was cut off for most part of the day in that area as declared in newspaper earlier.
So I was at my friends place in summer where there was no electricity. They stay in the fifth floor and have a huge ventatilation in their balcony. There was good circulation of air and since we were on the fifth floor the view was also good. Though not having electricity was kinda bored, we got to sit in open air, (not caling it fresh as i do not how i can call the air fresh when i am staying in one of the most congested city and area which was closer to airport and one of the most non green, no plants around) and it was a cool breeze too.
My friend was practicing his guitar while i was just sitting with them thinking on what all i was upto the last weekend and catching up with them on what my various other illustrious people were doing. Since we were all kinda doing a decent job in our professional life and been in job for 2 years, it was common for me to hear about people getting bugged in their family to get married.
I was curious to know what these 2 guys had to say about when they were getting married and what was their future plans. One of them said he was ready for next year. While the other wanted to do a MBA and only then get married. Anyways i also go to know that another batchmate of mine from my college was already married. (He is the second one that i know of). Now that was some news for me. I did not know if sounded good or bad to my ears but i was feeling something.
Me and my guitar frnd went on a bike ride. I did not want to go again to the CCD on the mysore road once again, as i had been there twice already. We went for a good 70km ride without speeding overly. My max speed throughout was jsut around 80kmph. I would have loved to do 100kmph but could not quite bring myself to do that. It was night and the road we were on was not looking very good. My frnd bought a new bike and wanted to make most of the ride. Finally we came back and i spent the night in their apartment, leaving early in the morning on Sunday.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Cottage in tirumala.
Ha
As promised i wanted to write a post on darshan of Padmavati Temple and the trip back to Bangalore. Well so just after we finished our darshan of Lord Venkateswara, we returned to our cottage after a walk of 2 kms from the temple to the start of the steps. That is where we got our cottage. Garudadri is what it is called but in Tirumala you will find signboards only to GNC not to Garudadri. GNC stands for Garudadri Nagar Cottage which i realised later.
Similarly ANC stands for Anjanadri Nagar Cottage. and some others which i do not recall now.
Now the process for checkout was pretty easy. But let me give you some details about cottages in GNC or ANC or similar cotttages which have the rent as 50/- per day. These cottages have an attached bathroom thankfully but for electrical points from where we could draw current to recharge your mobiles are not available in the rooms. So if you are running out of battery in your mobile and thought you could rest that night in peace while your mobile safely recharing in the room, you are in for some surprise. The plug points are only available outside the room and that too not necessarily just outside your room.
The architecture of these cottages is such that 3 cottages in the groundfloor are given the same number with the alphabets ,"A","B","C" attached and similarly 3 more on the first floor. i have not seen a single cottage with alphabet "A" appended having the plug point outside their cottage. So you will have to wait outside your cottage while ur mobile or other electrical appliances which need powersupply using the power so that you dont regret losing them while being unattended to.
But the upside of this all is people who do not have cottage can also get their mobile/electrical appliances get power supply without actually needing a cottage. There are like 3 to 4 plug points so that is not a problem.
Now about the cottages, instead of a movable cot all you have is a slab with tiles on the border and fixed. The quality of the mattresses though is now pretty good. You can also get blankets for free but for a fixed deposit of 150/- per blanket from the cottage enquiry room. Bedsheets would not be offerred though. There is not limit for the number of blankets which u can borrow i believe. Only two pillows are offered which come with the cottage. So people who need pillow beware.
So thats about the cottage and the stuff. Now about breakfast one can have it anywhere in those road side canteens which sometimes offer good food. But if you really are looking for a heavy breakfast you have to cover some distance. You will find hotel sapthagiri near the Shopping Complex which is usualy very rush or can go upto Sandeep Restaurant. the prices of the restaurant are damn cheap compared to hotels of the same kind in Tirupathi or any other city. Though they might not have all the variety that is offered in the menu. For people ordering Dosas beware, they would be cold and especially masala dosa. The curry is added after Doas is prepared not while preparing it.
Fruit juices were offered at 20/- per glass which i found to be very expensive. Anyways the service is usually slow. Order for idly which are small, it is served in sambar and ghee. It tastes real good.
So after having a good breakfast from Sandeep Restaurant we came back to checkout from the cottage. To checkout you wil first have to go to the shed from where you collected your key, return the key and he would give you the directions to where and how you can collect your refund of 200/- from. The directions are really helpful and he will ask you in which language you want these directions to be given in. Also he would ask for tips for maitaining the room clean though i do not know how much of the responsibilty he holds for that. Anyways anything between 10 to 20 should be good.
After getting the directions the first stop would be in the enquiry room where the system wil be updated that the room has been checked out from. Here also you might have to pay some money as tips as the guy sitting there would shamelessly ask for it. Sometimes he might be rude if you say you do not have any change. Next stop would be to the refund counter. Since we stayed in GNC, there is a Vijaya bank counter being run just after the Petrol bunk being run by Indian Oil. The processs here is simple just give the reciept and you would be paid your refund money. No tips to be given here. So usually the accomadation cost including these tips would go upto 100/-.
As promised i wanted to write a post on darshan of Padmavati Temple and the trip back to Bangalore. Well so just after we finished our darshan of Lord Venkateswara, we returned to our cottage after a walk of 2 kms from the temple to the start of the steps. That is where we got our cottage. Garudadri is what it is called but in Tirumala you will find signboards only to GNC not to Garudadri. GNC stands for Garudadri Nagar Cottage which i realised later.
Similarly ANC stands for Anjanadri Nagar Cottage. and some others which i do not recall now.
Now the process for checkout was pretty easy. But let me give you some details about cottages in GNC or ANC or similar cotttages which have the rent as 50/- per day. These cottages have an attached bathroom thankfully but for electrical points from where we could draw current to recharge your mobiles are not available in the rooms. So if you are running out of battery in your mobile and thought you could rest that night in peace while your mobile safely recharing in the room, you are in for some surprise. The plug points are only available outside the room and that too not necessarily just outside your room.
The architecture of these cottages is such that 3 cottages in the groundfloor are given the same number with the alphabets ,"A","B","C" attached and similarly 3 more on the first floor. i have not seen a single cottage with alphabet "A" appended having the plug point outside their cottage. So you will have to wait outside your cottage while ur mobile or other electrical appliances which need powersupply using the power so that you dont regret losing them while being unattended to.
But the upside of this all is people who do not have cottage can also get their mobile/electrical appliances get power supply without actually needing a cottage. There are like 3 to 4 plug points so that is not a problem.
Now about the cottages, instead of a movable cot all you have is a slab with tiles on the border and fixed. The quality of the mattresses though is now pretty good. You can also get blankets for free but for a fixed deposit of 150/- per blanket from the cottage enquiry room. Bedsheets would not be offerred though. There is not limit for the number of blankets which u can borrow i believe. Only two pillows are offered which come with the cottage. So people who need pillow beware.
So thats about the cottage and the stuff. Now about breakfast one can have it anywhere in those road side canteens which sometimes offer good food. But if you really are looking for a heavy breakfast you have to cover some distance. You will find hotel sapthagiri near the Shopping Complex which is usualy very rush or can go upto Sandeep Restaurant. the prices of the restaurant are damn cheap compared to hotels of the same kind in Tirupathi or any other city. Though they might not have all the variety that is offered in the menu. For people ordering Dosas beware, they would be cold and especially masala dosa. The curry is added after Doas is prepared not while preparing it.
Fruit juices were offered at 20/- per glass which i found to be very expensive. Anyways the service is usually slow. Order for idly which are small, it is served in sambar and ghee. It tastes real good.
So after having a good breakfast from Sandeep Restaurant we came back to checkout from the cottage. To checkout you wil first have to go to the shed from where you collected your key, return the key and he would give you the directions to where and how you can collect your refund of 200/- from. The directions are really helpful and he will ask you in which language you want these directions to be given in. Also he would ask for tips for maitaining the room clean though i do not know how much of the responsibilty he holds for that. Anyways anything between 10 to 20 should be good.
After getting the directions the first stop would be in the enquiry room where the system wil be updated that the room has been checked out from. Here also you might have to pay some money as tips as the guy sitting there would shamelessly ask for it. Sometimes he might be rude if you say you do not have any change. Next stop would be to the refund counter. Since we stayed in GNC, there is a Vijaya bank counter being run just after the Petrol bunk being run by Indian Oil. The processs here is simple just give the reciept and you would be paid your refund money. No tips to be given here. So usually the accomadation cost including these tips would go upto 100/-.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Day 2 Darshan
Day 1 ended with my frnds visiting the "Kalyana Katta" place where they had their heads shaved and me taking rest. We had our darshan at 3:30 am in the morning as the reporting time and darshan time as 4:00 am. But none of us had any sleep and I was sure we could reach the place at 5:00 am and stil have darshan.
I had my alarm at 3:40 am but got up only at 4:30 took care of my morning ablutions and was ready by 4;40 am. My frnds were all ready too by 5:00 am. Aditya was sceptical that we might miss the darshan but i was sure that we could still have darshan and that the line would now be leading to the temple without us waiting in those waiting halls. Arun was saying we might have to wait in the waiting halls as he always remembered waiting in those halls whenever he went for darshan.
We reached the queue which is opposite the Vijaya Bank by 5:30 am taking a morning walk leaving our cell phones and footwear in the room itself as we did not want any unnecessary stoppages near the temple. The queue was quite big and Aditya now was happy that we would have the darshan for sure.
The queue proceeded without much ado. But the notable thing missing was the security arrangements. The finger prints which were taken while issuing the tickets were not cross veririfed because of which any one else who could have stolen or got hold of the ticket could have the darshan instead. Also another notable thing missing was the collection of the tickets which was not done and a person could have second darshan if he were quick enough.
Now about the darshan. I had not visited the temple from January 2007 and I found that many things changed. The temple roof from inside was now decorated with a gold plating. This cannot be just described but should be seen with one's own eyes. Also the well in the temple was now decorated with gold plate. This has been renamed to "Bangaru Bavi" english translation "Golden Well".
For AAD, before the lord and the devotee there only one gate would be there as separation. But probably because of the rush of or could be because some repairs were being undertaken, the darshan ended in the place from where devotee could see the lord. Butdevotees were given a clean view by making sure no person would be obstructing the view of the devotee. Usually "theertam" holy water would be given to the devotees taking the AAD darshan, but that was also missing.
Notable things for AAD, temple would at any cost be closed at 7:00 am in the mornign on Saturday. Hence people who have AAD tickets will have to make sure they are in the line by 6:00 am in the morning so that they can have the darshan by 7:00 am.
This is my first time where i have seen people taking the free prasadam and wasting it.
Next post will be journey to Padmavati Temple and journey back to bangalore
I had my alarm at 3:40 am but got up only at 4:30 took care of my morning ablutions and was ready by 4;40 am. My frnds were all ready too by 5:00 am. Aditya was sceptical that we might miss the darshan but i was sure that we could still have darshan and that the line would now be leading to the temple without us waiting in those waiting halls. Arun was saying we might have to wait in the waiting halls as he always remembered waiting in those halls whenever he went for darshan.
We reached the queue which is opposite the Vijaya Bank by 5:30 am taking a morning walk leaving our cell phones and footwear in the room itself as we did not want any unnecessary stoppages near the temple. The queue was quite big and Aditya now was happy that we would have the darshan for sure.
The queue proceeded without much ado. But the notable thing missing was the security arrangements. The finger prints which were taken while issuing the tickets were not cross veririfed because of which any one else who could have stolen or got hold of the ticket could have the darshan instead. Also another notable thing missing was the collection of the tickets which was not done and a person could have second darshan if he were quick enough.
Now about the darshan. I had not visited the temple from January 2007 and I found that many things changed. The temple roof from inside was now decorated with a gold plating. This cannot be just described but should be seen with one's own eyes. Also the well in the temple was now decorated with gold plate. This has been renamed to "Bangaru Bavi" english translation "Golden Well".
For AAD, before the lord and the devotee there only one gate would be there as separation. But probably because of the rush of or could be because some repairs were being undertaken, the darshan ended in the place from where devotee could see the lord. Butdevotees were given a clean view by making sure no person would be obstructing the view of the devotee. Usually "theertam" holy water would be given to the devotees taking the AAD darshan, but that was also missing.
Notable things for AAD, temple would at any cost be closed at 7:00 am in the mornign on Saturday. Hence people who have AAD tickets will have to make sure they are in the line by 6:00 am in the morning so that they can have the darshan by 7:00 am.
This is my first time where i have seen people taking the free prasadam and wasting it.
Next post will be journey to Padmavati Temple and journey back to bangalore
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Missing pieces on Day one
Hi Friends,
Notable things missing on day one when we went to visit Talakona were:
1) Visit to Srinivasamangapuram. (Place where the idol looks similar to the one in Tirumala)
2) The "tati munjalu" (telugu) i would update this to english once i get what it is called in English
This temple is on the same way which one has to take to reach Talakona. The idol here is supposed to be similar to the one in Tirumala and the Lord here is known as Kalyana Venkateswara. The temple is small but receives quite a number of devotees. Our time of visit was 6 pm, and at this time there would be offering of "Naivedyam" ( offering of food) to the Lord . Darshan is stopped till around 6:45 pm. We had a good darshan and coming back of which we were offered the prasadam. The prasadam here is called as "Katta Pongali"(telugu). It is salty in taste made of rice. I was never a great fan of this one until I ate this prasadam. It was really very tasty. I could not resist but go back into the line to have a second round of prasadam!
Now coming to the "Tati Munjalu", I used to eat these fruits during summer vacation whenever I visited my either of Grandparents house. Since I no longer visit those places, its been a long time since I had these. The ones which are tender are the best ones to eat. After crossing the temple and while going towards Talakona, there would a railway crossing just after which one will find vendors selling them. The vendor here was very polite and one who treated his customers extremely well. Me and another frnd of mine had the fruit to our stomach full. Also we had good cocount water too.
This place was closer to an Enginerring college by Dr. Mohan Babu. The college name being called Vidyaniketan I guess. Students from the college were coming out after their exams and I found a lady who was realy attractive. The time we spent here was worth spending i thought. :).
Notable things missing on day one when we went to visit Talakona were:
1) Visit to Srinivasamangapuram. (Place where the idol looks similar to the one in Tirumala)
2) The "tati munjalu" (telugu) i would update this to english once i get what it is called in English
This temple is on the same way which one has to take to reach Talakona. The idol here is supposed to be similar to the one in Tirumala and the Lord here is known as Kalyana Venkateswara. The temple is small but receives quite a number of devotees. Our time of visit was 6 pm, and at this time there would be offering of "Naivedyam" ( offering of food) to the Lord . Darshan is stopped till around 6:45 pm. We had a good darshan and coming back of which we were offered the prasadam. The prasadam here is called as "Katta Pongali"(telugu). It is salty in taste made of rice. I was never a great fan of this one until I ate this prasadam. It was really very tasty. I could not resist but go back into the line to have a second round of prasadam!
Now coming to the "Tati Munjalu", I used to eat these fruits during summer vacation whenever I visited my either of Grandparents house. Since I no longer visit those places, its been a long time since I had these. The ones which are tender are the best ones to eat. After crossing the temple and while going towards Talakona, there would a railway crossing just after which one will find vendors selling them. The vendor here was very polite and one who treated his customers extremely well. Me and another frnd of mine had the fruit to our stomach full. Also we had good cocount water too.
This place was closer to an Enginerring college by Dr. Mohan Babu. The college name being called Vidyaniketan I guess. Students from the college were coming out after their exams and I found a lady who was realy attractive. The time we spent here was worth spending i thought. :).
Tirupati Journey
Another attempt to start blogging. It has been a long time since I wanted to start blogging again. Create a place for myself online to share my thoughts. Anyways I start my blogging here with a journey to the holy shrine which holds a real special place in my heart like it holds for millions others like me.
My friend's friend has been thinking of paying a visit to Tirumala for last 2 months, and I was also planning to visit this holy place with my friends for more than six months. Anyways, we decide to go to but have been trying real hard to find the means by which we would be going.
It is absolutely necessary for me and my friends to see the Lord Almighty and we have absolutely no intention of coming back without having darshan of the idol. We had an option of taking a private transporter package tour, which would cost 1500 bucks, but i had no trust whatsoever that we could have the darshan without which it would not be worth it. Other would be to catch a bus but tickets for which can only be bought at inflated prices and service which cannot be guaranteed. Finally we decided to hire a car. Indica, our travel agent being one with whom we worked a couple of times before.
Since we do not make any plans before, it was all decided on friday at 5 pm that we would leave in the next 3 hours. It was my idea to start early, but finally we started at 10 pm.
Camera!! none of us had one and we called up a frnd of us and finally got his camera. Without which the trip would be a bit dry. Finally, we start at 10 pm, and i suggest to our driver that we should be reaching Tirupati by 2 am in the morning. My friends and the driver suggest that it would not be possible. Thanks to the bangalore traffic, we reach the highway, at about an hour later. We have quite an eventless thankfully, journey and we reach Tirupati at 3 in the morning. Not bad I think. Since from night 12 to 3 vehicles are not allowed on the Ghat road. Our only chance was to somehow obtain the Arjitha Seva ticket for AAD like it is fondly called (Archana Anthara Darshanam) since there are 1500 available usually. We had to make a call whether we should either be reaching the top and get the ticket on the hill top or from Srinivasam.
We decide it would be better to sit in the queue or rather sleep (as it later turned out to be ) from Srinivasam at Tirupati rather than reach top. We get the information that we might possibly get accomadation on the hill top if we take tickets from Srinivasam. So our wait continued upto 8 in the mornign when the distribution of tickets started.
We 4 split into 2 groups as there were 2 queues and we were not sure which was the right one to stand in. It later turned out that it does not really matter. A family in the queue which was just ahead of us "X" started a quarell in the queue, which is quite common, since the family ahead brought their other family members just half an hour earlier. Finally this family "X" wins and this family also brings us ahead. I am happy to see this, but finally we find that even if we reached at 8 that day and standed in queue or in fact at 10 in the morning we still could have had the tickets. ALso about the accommadation. Only few rooms wil be released and it is upto luck who gets them. We had a brother and sister in the line and my frnd decided we would let them ahead of us and it turned out they were the last ones to get the accomadation in that release.
We decide we absolutely need a room that day. go into the town find some nice places.. the ones on the other side of the railway gate, accomadation being of the range from 450 to 750. But we decide against as we did not want to spend so much when we would hardly stay there.
Finally we come back to Srinivasam, and find that few other rooms have been released and unforutnately we miss the queue again. We complete our daily chores, take a bath and come back down to have our lunch. We find that rooms are again been given. We are lucky this time and get the acco now.
We go to talakona, which is 65 Kms from Srinivasam. The stage is set in a forest which supposedly also have tigers and other animals, though the only animal we found was the most commonly seen Human ancestor. a monkey.. The only waterfall here was one which was very thin in its flow and me and my frnds mock it when we see it for the first time. Later we reach the waterfall place and find that this fall was some good 30-40 mts above us. We are tired but I insist tht we go to the top anyways. We reach there and one drench in this waterfall we think it was really worth climbing to the top. I really liked this spot. we had a good laugh.
The best time would be when u just have finished a normal lunch, walking after heavy lunch is not good,start at 2, reach at around 3 or 4 and spend time upto 5. After 5 u r not allowed to stay there. 50/- for car, 10/- for camera and 2/- per head are the charges there.
We reach tirupati back, decide to go straight ahead to Tirumala. The security not being very tight as the place where security check happens and where the people start to the top is far away and any culprit can get goods in between this place. We reach Tirumala, have dinner at Mayura, name prsently changed to Venkatadri becoz of which we had trouble finding this restaurant.
My frnds head back to get their heads shaved while i stayed at the room after roaming for some half an hour.
Next journey continued in the next blog.
My friend's friend has been thinking of paying a visit to Tirumala for last 2 months, and I was also planning to visit this holy place with my friends for more than six months. Anyways, we decide to go to but have been trying real hard to find the means by which we would be going.
It is absolutely necessary for me and my friends to see the Lord Almighty and we have absolutely no intention of coming back without having darshan of the idol. We had an option of taking a private transporter package tour, which would cost 1500 bucks, but i had no trust whatsoever that we could have the darshan without which it would not be worth it. Other would be to catch a bus but tickets for which can only be bought at inflated prices and service which cannot be guaranteed. Finally we decided to hire a car. Indica, our travel agent being one with whom we worked a couple of times before.
Since we do not make any plans before, it was all decided on friday at 5 pm that we would leave in the next 3 hours. It was my idea to start early, but finally we started at 10 pm.
Camera!! none of us had one and we called up a frnd of us and finally got his camera. Without which the trip would be a bit dry. Finally, we start at 10 pm, and i suggest to our driver that we should be reaching Tirupati by 2 am in the morning. My friends and the driver suggest that it would not be possible. Thanks to the bangalore traffic, we reach the highway, at about an hour later. We have quite an eventless thankfully, journey and we reach Tirupati at 3 in the morning. Not bad I think. Since from night 12 to 3 vehicles are not allowed on the Ghat road. Our only chance was to somehow obtain the Arjitha Seva ticket for AAD like it is fondly called (Archana Anthara Darshanam) since there are 1500 available usually. We had to make a call whether we should either be reaching the top and get the ticket on the hill top or from Srinivasam.
We decide it would be better to sit in the queue or rather sleep (as it later turned out to be ) from Srinivasam at Tirupati rather than reach top. We get the information that we might possibly get accomadation on the hill top if we take tickets from Srinivasam. So our wait continued upto 8 in the mornign when the distribution of tickets started.
We 4 split into 2 groups as there were 2 queues and we were not sure which was the right one to stand in. It later turned out that it does not really matter. A family in the queue which was just ahead of us "X" started a quarell in the queue, which is quite common, since the family ahead brought their other family members just half an hour earlier. Finally this family "X" wins and this family also brings us ahead. I am happy to see this, but finally we find that even if we reached at 8 that day and standed in queue or in fact at 10 in the morning we still could have had the tickets. ALso about the accommadation. Only few rooms wil be released and it is upto luck who gets them. We had a brother and sister in the line and my frnd decided we would let them ahead of us and it turned out they were the last ones to get the accomadation in that release.
We decide we absolutely need a room that day. go into the town find some nice places.. the ones on the other side of the railway gate, accomadation being of the range from 450 to 750. But we decide against as we did not want to spend so much when we would hardly stay there.
Finally we come back to Srinivasam, and find that few other rooms have been released and unforutnately we miss the queue again. We complete our daily chores, take a bath and come back down to have our lunch. We find that rooms are again been given. We are lucky this time and get the acco now.
We go to talakona, which is 65 Kms from Srinivasam. The stage is set in a forest which supposedly also have tigers and other animals, though the only animal we found was the most commonly seen Human ancestor. a monkey.. The only waterfall here was one which was very thin in its flow and me and my frnds mock it when we see it for the first time. Later we reach the waterfall place and find that this fall was some good 30-40 mts above us. We are tired but I insist tht we go to the top anyways. We reach there and one drench in this waterfall we think it was really worth climbing to the top. I really liked this spot. we had a good laugh.
The best time would be when u just have finished a normal lunch, walking after heavy lunch is not good,start at 2, reach at around 3 or 4 and spend time upto 5. After 5 u r not allowed to stay there. 50/- for car, 10/- for camera and 2/- per head are the charges there.
We reach tirupati back, decide to go straight ahead to Tirumala. The security not being very tight as the place where security check happens and where the people start to the top is far away and any culprit can get goods in between this place. We reach Tirumala, have dinner at Mayura, name prsently changed to Venkatadri becoz of which we had trouble finding this restaurant.
My frnds head back to get their heads shaved while i stayed at the room after roaming for some half an hour.
Next journey continued in the next blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)