10 June - Tirupati
Had to get up early so we could get ready to go for
darshan. As I was washing my clothes the water stopped! Strange things happen.
It came after 20 mins. I decided not to
have breakfast until after darshan. We arrived at Tirumala by 9 am and tried to
figure out where to stand in line. It was not super organized but at least
there were some areas that were saved for people who had the vouchers. There was just too much crowd; everywhere
there was pushing and shoving. There was just too much garbage around, the
ground was wet and top of that I cut my foot! Ugh! Tied my hanky around my
foot. I was just too worried about infection. We got our vouchers de-scanned
and then got our ticket for laddoo. Sat in one big hall for a while then got
shifted to another big hall – and even during this transfer there was a lot of
rush. There was TV to watch and vendors selling coffee and snacks – that is how
long the wait was going to be.
Then the gates opened and then it was just horrible until
after the darshan. People just push too much. I will not be coming back here
again. The people are just terrible – jungle. Every turn, every step was a
challenge. I wonder if Balaji imagined it would be like this. It was terrible
feeling and very overwhelming. And after all this darshan was for less than 0.5
sec and we were pushed ahead and out. 0.5 sec darshan after 4 hrs. of waiting. Never
again.
Came out and took prasaad, chakra pongal, real good! Went
and got our laddoo – also one of the best in the whole world. Went to find and
found the place for free lunch. Had to
get ticket for it, and after 30 mins, we got our seating. Again lot of pushing.
Don’t know why people do that kind of stuff – it’s not like they are going to
get there any earlier. Oh and we are still walking barefoot. The dining room was all wet and my foot was
still cut.
Meal was served by servers, each one brought different
things at a time. The meal was very
tasty. And then they shut the doors so we could not exit. Soon they did open
and everyone again rushed out! Ugh the pushing is getting to me.
One other thing I noticed is that people are definitely
not hygienic. Especially in case of bathroom hygiene. They sit the kids
anywhere, even though this is a temple area, they don’t care. They were sitting
them out of the dining area also! Just disgusting. And of course then in such a pious place all
I could smell was urine!
We got our shoes – the guy seemed to be asking for money.
Really bad because this is one of the richest temples of the world and they
can’t pay their people. We walked around and did a little shopping. We had some
coffee and then went to the bus stop. It started to rain.
There were some other people in the bus who were there
for darshan but got vouchers for after their train reservation was to go back
home. And there is the problem – one comes with so much bhakti and then this happens.
We decided to take the free shuttle around the temple,
but the driver asked us to get off the bus at the 2nd stop rather
than taking us back to the bus stop. Again a whole lot of argument from the
driver and rudeness from the conductor. What is wrong with these people? There
is no dignity of labor, no pride in their work and they are just plain rude. So we got off and took the next
bus that came and went back to the bus stop.
It was time to go back down to Tirupati. We all got wet because the windows would not
close and we did not want to also – it would get too stuffy inside. The great government buses. Even the poor driver’s windshield wipers were
not working. But amazing driver – he brought us down in the night, in the rain
all safe and sound.
Got back to the hotel, only to find one of the beds all
wet because we left the window open and the rain got in. It really does not get
easy anywhere. It took 40 mins for the hotel staff to get dry covers and pillows.
And then they wanted to take the TV away from our room. What kind of a hotel is
this?
I will be happy to leave Tirupati – this has been the
worst experience of the whole trip by far. I am sure it cannot get worse than
this.
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