Once we entered the Temple, Nirmala managed to bypass a portion of the crowd for us. She greeted someone she knew and he arranged for us to stand in front of the beautiful Venkateswara form for quite a few minutes. Usually, it is a few seconds and if you are lucky, you are allowed to stay for 2 minutes before the volunteer security pushes you out. I was lost in time and enjoyed the bliss!!! The shrine was charged with energy. Rao and I slowly came out and waited for Nirmala. We reached the Hundi (where we make our material offeringsI and offered money. Another friend from Chennai gave us some money to be deposited on behalf of his grand daughter five year old Akshara who lives in Cleveland area.
On Wednesday I went to my native town Nellore to visit my sister. She lived on the 4th floor and the elevator was out of order as usual. I had to carry my two small pieces of luggage by myself. Surprisingly, I had no difficulty, no gasping for breath. I spent a night there and returned to Tirupati on Thursday. It is a 3 hour trip each way by a fast bus.
The same evening, we went to Tiruchanur to have the darsan of Padmavathy. While we were standing in line holding the ticket for the kumkum pooja sponsorship, there was another couple in front of us who had sponsored a bigger pooja and while the priest was paying a lot of attention to them, he thought that we were in their group and mistakenly made us sit in the front along with them. We had wonderful time and did not realize that it was an error until suddenly he ignored us, did not give us kumkum or prasadam and was profusely thanking the other couple. What ever the mistake, we had wonderful time and we left with happiness.
Now that Nirmala showed up with mild infections, we went to visit the doctors etc. on Friday and with whatever time was left, finished our packing. The next day w left to Chennai railway station. Waited for about two hours for Bhuvana and her brother Uma to arrive )they are local Chennai). They made all the train reservations for us and held the e-tickets. We had to wait for the railway official to show up and allocate our seats/beds etc. This happened only after 6 p.m. Bhuvana brought plenty of delicious home made food for all of us to eat on the train. We also took some and the food was abundance. The company was good and we sang bhajans, recited Hanuman Chaleesa and had blissful time. By the time we reached Delhi, we could not finish all perishable food and had through it away. I felt very sad for that. The taxi arranged by Bhuvana's uncle was waiting for us at the station, the train was amazingly on time and we spent the day at her Uncles' place. They are twin uncles with wonderful wives. We decided to hire a taxi and go around part od Delhi before our night train time.
On Wednesday I went to my native town Nellore to visit my sister. She lived on the 4th floor and the elevator was out of order as usual. I had to carry my two small pieces of luggage by myself. Surprisingly, I had no difficulty, no gasping for breath. I spent a night there and returned to Tirupati on Thursday. It is a 3 hour trip each way by a fast bus.
The same evening, we went to Tiruchanur to have the darsan of Padmavathy. While we were standing in line holding the ticket for the kumkum pooja sponsorship, there was another couple in front of us who had sponsored a bigger pooja and while the priest was paying a lot of attention to them, he thought that we were in their group and mistakenly made us sit in the front along with them. We had wonderful time and did not realize that it was an error until suddenly he ignored us, did not give us kumkum or prasadam and was profusely thanking the other couple. What ever the mistake, we had wonderful time and we left with happiness.
Now that Nirmala showed up with mild infections, we went to visit the doctors etc. on Friday and with whatever time was left, finished our packing. The next day w left to Chennai railway station. Waited for about two hours for Bhuvana and her brother Uma to arrive )they are local Chennai). They made all the train reservations for us and held the e-tickets. We had to wait for the railway official to show up and allocate our seats/beds etc. This happened only after 6 p.m. Bhuvana brought plenty of delicious home made food for all of us to eat on the train. We also took some and the food was abundance. The company was good and we sang bhajans, recited Hanuman Chaleesa and had blissful time. By the time we reached Delhi, we could not finish all perishable food and had through it away. I felt very sad for that. The taxi arranged by Bhuvana's uncle was waiting for us at the station, the train was amazingly on time and we spent the day at her Uncles' place. They are twin uncles with wonderful wives. We decided to hire a taxi and go around part od Delhi before our night train time.
No comments:
Post a Comment