''Yadu Kondala Vada ,Venkatramana, Govindaa…..!!’’–(O Venkatramana, do bring us joy,fulfilment & Prosperity!!)

YES everybody, it is indeed my next travelogue, though the title might indicate otherwise JJ

It was a much delayed trip – I’d wanted to visit the Tirupati shrine after our wedding almost two years back and for reasons that couldn’t be helped, the time never was right. It worried me a bit, that none of the plans we made actually materialised – that was when amma told me , ‘’ You’re not the one to decide when to visit Tirumala , but Balaji(Lord Vishnu) who calls you unto Him, as he chooses to.’’. I laughed when she said that, but in retrospect, it really was how things came about……

It was our yearly visit to India in the months of Nov- Dec for a couple of weeks and we’d a thousand things to be done, that could very well take us a month to accomplish (working overtime!!!).But well, that’s really how our trips to India usually are!!! More work than fun! This time around though, visiting Tirupati topped our ‘’To Do’’ list…The only daunting part of it was that, it wasn’t going to be a normal ‘’go there-queue up-do the darshan’’ trip this time – We were planning to do the journey from the foothills of Tirupati, up the seven great hills, to the holy shrine on the seventh hill , at Tirumala , by FOOT….

Yup, we LITERALLY had an ‘’UpHill’’ task ahead!! V wasn’t all that excited, devout though he is, in his own ways… As for me, I wasn’t worried about the actual trek; I was more worried about the plans having to be cancelled yet again as it had happened time and again before. But, I believe, Balaji was quite happy to have us visit him this time around and so our journey began one afternoon from Chennai, with Daddy and Mummy in the tow as well! It was a pleasant drive all the way – all four of us chatting nineteen-to-the –dozen and thoroughly enjoying ourselves. Tirupati’s about 150 kms from Chennai by road and is also well connected through rail and air as well. Bangalore is around 260 Km and Hyderabad around 500 km away from the town.

Along the way, V surprised us all by sharing with us the legend behind India’s richest and most visited temple. Legend has it that, Srinivasa (again, another of Vishnus ‘Sahasra’ namas) married Padmavati here after he was given a huge loan by Kubera (The Lord of wealth and prosperity). The seven hills are said to denote the seven heads of Adishesha - the Holy serpent of Lord Vishnu. The seven peaks are called Seshadri, Neeladri, Garudadri, Anjanadri, Vrushabadri, Narayanadri and Venkatadri. The sacred temple of Sri Venkateswara is located on the seventh peak, Venkatadri, and lies on the southern banks of Pushkarini River. While, his consort, Padmavati ( Goddess lakshmi) has her temple at the foothills. Devotees visit this temple first before they go up the hills for their darshan of Srinivasa. The temple dates back to 9^th century and has been patronised by the kings of various southern dynasties like the Pallavas,Cholas and the Vijayanagara rulers.

We were in Tirupati by evening and checked into our hotel, which, by the way was really decent, given the scathing reviews available online, about all the hotels in Tirupati . You could actually have it on your list of hotels to choose from, the next time you’re there - http://www.hotelsindhu.com/. We had dinner brought up to our rooms and simply lounged about, taking in the sights,smells and sounds of the bustling town beneath us from the balcony . We’d a long day ahead of us and hit the bed at the stroke of ten.

I realised,Decembers could get really cold at Tirupati (about 1000m above sea level), as we were up by 4 am the next day, showered and all set for the trek. Daddy surprised us by saying that he’d join us on the trek, as well. Mummy chose well and stayed behind. To be honest, I was slightly worried about daddy getting exhausted halfway through the climb, but then, I couldn’t have been more wrong, as daddy came out as the slow and steady ‘’tortoise’’ who won the race ultimately, and put the hasty ‘’hare’’ to shame!!!! We drove up to Alipiri, the base were the footpath for the walking pilgrims started. We had our job cut out for us – It was a 14 km climb, 3604 steps in all! And the icing on the cake was that it started raining cats and dogs just as we started the climb! But that wouldn’t deter us , or the other pilgrims who swooshed-splashed-pattered up the wet,slippery,cold steps at amazing speeds barefoot, whilst we gingerly climbed up, one step at a time, running shoes et al J

The Map of the climb.....

As we slightly warmed up, we found that climbing the steps were far easier than we thought it would be. Though, of course, we took frequent breaks along the climb up. As we trudged up, M.S.Subbulakshmi’s enchanting voice, singing the morning ‘’Venkatesha Suprabhatam’’,on the loudspeakers, sounded as if it were waking the sleepy town below us into another glorious day of life…The first 250 steps brought us to the ‘’Mysore Gopuram’’ where we were relieved to find  numerous tiny shops selling tea ,snacks and yes, precious water!! We were careful not to have anything too filling for breakfast, as the climb would just get harder, instead, had long swigs of water (lest we get dehydrated). And without much ado, continued up the steps….

The rain simply wouldn’t cooperate and poured on all around us. But yeah, the steps were sheltered and we were kept from getting drenched to the bone. Morning dawned lazily around us and the thick greenery on either side , glistened wet and smelt wonderful and fresh. It was, in a way, invigorating. I’d anyday have preferred a rainy day over a hot,sunny one to have done this trek! Im sure, you know how notorious the ‘Andhra summers’ can be! J  Another two hour climb and we were at step 2083 – the ‘’Gali Gopuram’’ where we were issued biometric darshan tickets. By the way, I do have to tell you that, Tirupati has the most elaborately planned and executed Queue regulation systems to tackle the ever increasing rush of pilgrims to the temple.Its estimated that around 75000 pilgrims visit the temple each day!! A normal free darshan could take as much as a few hours to an entire day depending on the crowds for the day. There are special paid queues as well that could reduce the waiting time quite a bit, but , in Tirumala, it is an undisputed fact that , whatever queue you be in, whaterver special pooja you do, there is always a prolonged wait….You could always have a peek at the Tirumala TTD website for all the info - http://www.tirumala.org/

By the time, we’d covered 2200 steps, we’d taken to a bit of snacking here and there, plus all that water was making us take frequent breaks as well. I was panting hard and wishing I weighed a few pounds less, V was showing signs of exhaustion as well, but surprise! Daddy was slightly behind us, yet steadily plodding along!! At times he even left both of us panting and tagging behind him… Along the way, we passed the deer park, which recently was in the news, cuz of the stray panthers that it attracted. There had been an instance of a panther attacking a few pilgrims along the walking trail and the path had to be closed until the panthers were safely caught..I did try to lighten up the mood by joking about panthers lurking in the thick greenery around and stalking us, but V and daddy were both so intent on climbing the slippery wet steps that the jokes were’nt a hit JJ

The deer park enroute...

At the 7th mile -A milestone reached, Whew!!



Step no 2910 brought us to the start of ‘’Mokkali mitta’’ from where started the last 600 steep steps, and the hardest ones to climb of the lot, cuz of their uneven, varying heights. Our breaks increased and chit-chat was almost reduced to nothing, except for our heavy breathing. Cries of ‘’Govindaa Govindaa…’’ from devout pilgrims chanting the lord’s name for encouragement, filled the air. Those steps, by far, was the toughest part of our entire climb and I found myself inwardly crying out to the lord along with the others… There were times when I thought, I really wouldn’t be able to make it, but voila, before all hopes were gone, I saw the last of the 3604 steps right ahead of me and broke into a wide grin JJJ We patted each other in lieu of the successful climb and went right along to queue up at the temple complex after depositing cameras ,mobiles and other stuff.

We were told that there was a special queue for the pilgrims who’d walked all the way up. Dodging the heavy crowds, we thankfully headed into our queue… The queue was much, much shorter compared to the standard queue timings of tirupati and we had a wonderful darshan, that probably lasted a whole 5 SECONDS J Lucky Us!!! After the darshan, we again were engulfed by the multitude of masses queuing up for the copyrighted Tirupati laddoo prasadam  (which I must admit, does taste DIVINE) !! J

But as I already said, in Tirupati, that’s how it always has been… And despite the 5 hours climb, the rush,the pushes and shoves, in those 5 profound seconds,in the epicentre of faith, I found myself , 3604 steps nearer to cognizance……………It was a humbling experience, indeed.

PS- Sorry for the sloppy photographs, they were clicked on V's BBerry, as cameras arent allowed in the temple....