8th August 6:30 am – Destination Hyderabad.
With great excitement I off boarded the bus. No
matter
which city you go to, I guess a sight you will never miss seeing is
buzzing auto drivers all around you attempting to get what they call a Savari!
On the way to the hotel I was amazed to see lot of cutouts
and posters with Bakra(goat), some garlanded, some cut outs as big as a
politician’s campaign. For a while I wondered of it was some party’s mascot.
Then it suddenly flashed to me, Ramzan was around the corner and the city was
gearing up for celebration. Well, I wasn’t wrong after all for comparing Bakra
posters with politicians. The only difference is politicians would make Bakra
out of the public and in this case the public makes Bakra, out of the Bakra
itself!!
At the hotel I realized, no matter how much I plan, write
down things to carry there’s always something I would forget I know that’s the
case with most. This time it was the toothbrush. I switched over to the age old
brushing technique with the index finger and then hit the shower! After an amazing
and relaxing Kriya and meditation time, I called Neelesh Ji to let him know I
had arrived and meet up with him so we could head to Chilkur Temple.
It was time to execute MY PLAN. I called Neelesh Ji in the
anticipation that we could visit the temple and head back to the hotel by noon
on time for Lunch and then take an early bus to Tirupati. While the little mind
was making the plans, the BIG MIND willed otherwise! Neelesh Ji in his cheerful
voice said he would meet me sometime at noon since he had some work to finish
but not sure about the time! POP went my first plan! Temple visit during the
way wasn't going to be. I decided to
make the best of the uncertainty – YES I DECIDED TO EAT! BREAKFAST AWAITS!
At breakfast time the score tally:
After a yummy breakfast, after Madhya Pradesh (tummy) got
refilled Uttar Pradesh took over again. Let’s book your Darshan ticket to
Tirupati, I said to myself and so I took an auto and headed towards the TTD
office nearby. I was disappointed to hear that the tickets were being issued
only for Darshan a week later. I recollected that the hotel had a travel desk
and so approached the travel desk for booking my ticket. To my amazement all
early buses were full and the ticket cost for the other buses were out of my
budget! So much that I could go back to Bangalore and take a package trip to
Tirupati and back, it would still work out cheaper! The guy at the travel desk
traveled in and out of redbus.in but couldn't get a ticket in my budget. He
searched, he made calls but to no avail. Allowing the travel dude his space I
stepped out of the hotel for some fresh air. Taking a deep breath I said to
myself, ok GOD you know how much I can spend on the ticket considering the
other expenses for the trip, If I get a ticket around Rs.800 I’ll come else I’ll
have to meet you next time! At that moment my plans changed. I walked back to
the travel desk to book to a ticket back to Bangalore. Even before I could
utter a word he said , “ Sir I got a ticket for Rs.800 and just the one seat
available!” For a moment I was zapped, I realized my eyes were wet with tears.
Not sure why, I asked him to book the ticket. Yet again my plan was outplayed. MY WILL 0 : GOD's WILL- 2
Soon it was lunch time. Neelesh Ji asked me to come over by
1:30pm to his place. So I quickly but slowly had a super duper lunch and took
an auto to Neelesh Ji’s place. I reached his place by 2:00 pm. My plan was to
get back to the hotel by 7:30 pm so I could get some rest before the night
travel. By the time we left it was already 3:45pm and as per my calculations it
would be impossible to get back by 7:00pm. But there were no complaints in my
mind, I just allowed the events to unfold and experience it as it revealed
itself. We reached the temple at 4:30 pm. A small, beautiful, serene and a
divine temple which answered the prayers of thousands – I stood right in front
of it. I stepped into the temple to see many circumambulating with their Sankalpa
in mind. I was soon to join them. We went in to meet the priest and introduced
ourselves. He requested us to stay back and be a part of the evening Pooja to
the Lord. In the meantime, making my prayers loud and clear in my heart I began
the 11 rounds. We were blessed to sit very close to the idol where the Pooja
was being performed. As I sat immersed looking at the offerings one of the
priest asked us to sing some Bhajans! WOW! What an opportunity to express your
divine love and what better way than to sing songs in praise of the Divine? Me
and Sapna who accompanied us sang for almost 45 minutes and enjoyed every
moment of it. Time flew by and by the time we were ready to leave it was 7:30
pm! The pic above taken just before leaving. It was the time I wanted to reach the hotel and I was yet to leave the
temple! Considering the time it would take to drive back to the city we rushed
to the car hoping to reach the hotel on time so I wouldn't miss the bus. I had
just about enough time to have 3 Chapattis and then checkout of the hotel. I
made it to the bus stand on time. Next stop Tirupati. After settling down in
the seat I started to chart down my plan for the next day. Since I had to pick
up the Darshan ticket after reaching Tirupati I planned to take a room, take
bath and head to Tirumala first thing. So at the end of day 2 the scoreboard read:
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