To Tirupathi - Lord Venkateswara

We both visited my other friend's husband in the hospital. He recognized Rao and showed some anxiety. Whenever I landed in Chennai in the past, he was always there at the Airport with his smiling face waiting for us. Even when my two children visited India on their own, they received them whole heartedly. Now I think he felt his inability in doing the same. Remember I mentioned about praying for him while touring Chardham? The way he looked, I wasn't sure whether I would see him again. His wife tried to be bold. She was like another sibling for me. With all these memories, I went to the Chennai train station.

We were to join Nirmala again at Tirupathi. There was a direct train from Chennai - so, it was easy, pleasant and was only less than four hours of travel. She was a great host as usual. We were very comfortable at her place. She visits the Temple of Sri Venkateswara (Tirumalai -up the hills) at least once a week. She has been living there since her early teens. We are like sisters. She booked a special pooja (worship) called Poolangi seva that evening. We hired a Taxi and returned by night fall in the same Taxi to her flat (apartment). I recalled that in our college days we used to walk up and down the hills from our hostel. There was a group of us who always went together. I think it was about 10 miles or more each way. We were never tired during the trip, even though the aches and pains would show up the following day. Now, I felt tired even going by Taxi. All these thoughts went through my mind.

The evening Poolangi seva was great. After that, we went inside the primary shrine. With Nirmala being our guide once inside, we bypassed some crowd (which I never liked even 40 years ago) and entered the garbha gudi (anctum sanctorum). No matter how skillfully you entered up to that point, you are first at the mercy of the crowd who push and shove and later on at the mercy of the volunteers who really really hold your shoulder and push you. You travel many miles to reach Tirupathi, many hours to reach up to that point, but you are allowed to stand there in front of the Idol for no more than TWO seconds. I also complain about this. But with the millions visiting each day, there is no other alternative. The only thing I wanted was for the volunteers to be not so rude. Perhaps if they were polite, they cannot not control the flow of the devotees. I am sure each devotee would like to stand there for a long time. In spite of all this, the place is charged with energy and I felt the goose bumps every time I was there. Anyway, we had wonderful darsans and returned to her place for more rest.

Now that our yatra portion was over, we visited our respective families. My sisters, my niece and Rao's side of the family (all of them in Andhra Pradesh) before returning to the USA.

I had to rush through my posts at the end. I cut down on many details. But, I sincerely hope that all of you that went through my posts of this trip found something interesting, useful and enjoyable. Please don't forget to join me on my next trip to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka Temples which took in November - December of 2007. I will try to post them very soon.

P.S. I could not elaborate on many names, but just search on the Google and you will get ample information.

Thank you all for traveling with me in spirit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.