Slowly, the darsan line was getting longer. Every few minutes, someone would come and ask me questions about the procedures, as to how long we are going to wait in this line, what happens when we go inside and so on. I could answer all their querries. Three sisters from northern Michigan were behind us in line. One of them asked me "How long have you been involved?" They were surprised when I said that this was the first time that I am seeing her. We came to the conclusion that all others that were approaching me with their questions thought I was one of the volunteers. Immediately I approached a real volunteer (with an official scarf around his neck) and verified my answers with him. He laughed and said that they were correct. The time has come to identify who goes first. One lady came and put a tiny round sticker on us and said this should tell that we should be given the token first. By 5:30 p.m. it was a long line. We were asked to go in and be seated in chairs and wait for the actual tokens. By 6:30 p.m the tokens were given to those that were supposed to be first in line. If we are with the family, we sit in a group one behind the other. If it is a couple, Husband goes first and the wife should follow.
The videos were being played continuously while we waited for Amma's darsan. The hall was full. By 7:30 p.m., I heard the conch being blown. Amma was entering the hall. In graceful steps, she went up the dias. We all stood up in reverence.
Then, the devotional singing in her melodious voice, speeches by the local politicians (one democrat and one republican), two other speakers were her followers and probably they travel with her. She gave a talk in Malayalam and it was translated into English. The essence was the same as any other lecture by a spiritual leader - see good, do good type.
Alex was behind me while we were waiting for the tokens, but now he is sitting on the floor in the front.
The hugging began around 9:30 p.m. Alex was ahead of us for this. When my turn came, Rao got hugged first and then when I leaned forward, the volunteers tried to push me down to bring me to a sitting position. In that process, they scratched my neck with their nails. Due to that instant pain, I lost my focus. Since we were asked what our mother tongue was, she said her two words in Telugu - 'bangaaru thalli' 3 times, but added 'bhajana paadu = sing a bhajan'. The volunteers pushed me away. We had a choice to set on the side for a few minutes or leave the hall by the side door. We sat for 5 minutes or more watching other devotees being hugged.
We had something to eat in the Amma's foof court around 11:15 p.m.
Alex and I were not too impressed. He did not want to go the next day.
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