[vvivek85]

My late granny used to say even if someone has done a PhD in planning may fail to execute Tirumala Balaji darshan, only if the great Venkatachalapathy decides to give darshan we will be entitled for one.

With setting that context I would like to share our recent Tirumala experience. We are a family of 6 (father, mother,chittappa (physically challenged),wife, daughter and I) and our family god is Tirupati Venkatachalapathy, yearly once we would want to visit but more often than not we couldn’t do so. Last time we went in December 2021 where it was a different experience altogether, there was a landslide on that day; so to and fro vehicles used the same route, which resulted in a huge traffic and time delay. To our surprise darshan was quick. Miracle? Yes.

Now coming back to 2023, mom and wife asked me if we can go to Tirupati, I checked in TTD online portal, ₹300 tickets were full till September and I got to understand very limited tickets are issued online, later few days back I myself tried for October, 3 hours post the quota was released and it showed full. This was not the case in the past, in 2021 I booked through online and it was seamless. I am not sure what is the reason and don’t want to get into it but something seams fishy.

So now I am limited to booking any of “a day darshan travels”. I went to Tamil Nadu tourism website sometime around June end and tickets were available for July 2023. I booked for 22nd July 2023 ₹ 13500 amount got debited but didn’t get the ticket confirmation. When checked with customer care they stated I will get the refund. Now I don’t want to risk with Tamil Nadu tourism again, so checked with few travels, for 5 adults 1 child packages the respective travels website states 9k, however when I called them the amount which I was asked for was somewhere between 17k to 20k. I hope now one can connect the dots between tickets unavailability and exorbitant prices. We finally decided Balaji travels who charged us ₹ 17500. This amount includes all for transport (Innova) , breakfast, lunch for 6 ,Balaji ₹ 300 special darshan ticket for 5. The date we freezed was 22nd July 23, paid an advance of ₹11000.

On 21st July Moorthy (driver) called me and confirmed my location and informed that he will reach my place at 5 AM. I informed him we have a physically challenged person and requested him to ensure he is getting a seamless darshan, I duly sent his Unique disability id to him, he said will find a way to arrange his darshan. But at that moment nothing was confirmed as we need to get a separate ticket for senior citizens and physically challenged, those tickets were not available even via travels.

The day

Moorthy came by 5:15 AM we were all in readiness, the first point was Sri Padmavathi Ammavaari Temple in Tiruchanur we reached around 8 :30 AM, took ₹100 ticket and had a great darshan. Within few minutes we were back to the vehicle. Next we headed for breakfast in Tirupati, food was average, we requested him for lunch in Bhimas, little did we know that our lunch would be after sunset.

Post our breakfast we started to Tirumala, reached around 10:30 AM an agent came with the tickets, when explained about our requirement, he informed us these are not tickets for physically challenged, he insisted taking my Chittappa with us; but that would not be possible considering his situation. While tension was in the air, driver then came up with a plan; he will somehow take my father and Chittappa to the front gopuram and make them wait there, I need to take their tickets with me and do the scanning and get permission from the authorities in scanning center by explaining the situation, so while I reach near front gopuram I can meet them show their tickets to police there and pick them up. Sounds like a great plan right? What can go wrong? this where I would like to remind you all the first few lines of this post on what my Granny said.

With a great fear and confusion we headed towards ₹300 entrance whereas father and Chittappa went with the driver. Now imagine this situation, we don’t have our phones, I need to somehow meet them, I have their tickets, Aadhar, unique disability id, authorities need to accept, if something goes wrong they won’t be able to see the darshan. I trusted the great Venkatachalapathy “somehow” he will make it happen. You will understand the reason why I quoted somehow within quotes.

Our journey started at 11:10 AM, there was a huge rush and it was slow moving with few cage sitting. Reached scanning center, I explained the person on the situation; he asked me to meet his higher authority who was seated beside him, that person checked at all proofs and said he will accept for my Chittappa but not my father. I explained to him that my father was there to support my Chittappa as he can’t walk normally, moreover my father is a senior citizen. He was not ready to listen and informed me to go out and take my father with me in the queue. So he signed only in my Chittappa’s ticket to allow him not in my father’s. So now the risk of my dad missing the darshan is on the higher side as I can’t go back in search of my father because he should be near the gopuram and I wouldn’t be allowed, so took the risk and started from there.

By around 3PM we went near gopuram, to our surprise my dad and Chittappa is nowhere to be seen. I tried my best to look for them and over a point in time I was pushed to go inside. At that point in time we were under impression they should have watched the darshan and waiting in car. We entered in, when you enter the sannadhi it was a literal goosebumps moment, how many ever times you see him one will be wanting for more, running out of adjectives it was a great darshan.

Post darshan we went to laddu counter and got the laddus, I requested him to give me back the tickets but he denied. Came out of the laddu counter, got a phone from police officer and called Moorthy, to our shock he said both my dad and Chittappa are seated in glass door office room which is near front gopuram. Now I don’t have the tickets, for a minute my brain didn’t work as I was thinking what should I do now. The series of events which unfolded from here is what I call miracle and make me sternly believe that if you trust the almighty, rest assure you will be taken care off.

Miracle 1

I immediately ran towards laddu counter asking for tickets. The guy who was sitting there knew Tamil, I explained him that they didn’t see the darshan yet. In laddu counter they used to just throw the tickets just like that, finding the tickets were not easy, he was literally searching for my tickets for close to 3 minutes and got us the tickets. Usually you won’t get the tickets back, but “somehow” I got it

Miracle 2

With the tickets in hands I checked a police on where is the office room, he guided me on where to go. I reached near the front gopuram in searching for office room, there a police stopped me and said I can’t go in; I explained him my situation he then guided me on where is the office room. While I ran towards office room, coincidentally my dad came out as he saw me running towards police few seconds back. My dad is nearing 70s and his eye sight at best I would rate as 60 on 100. Only god knows how he saw me from office room in that fraction of second.

Miracle 3

In office room the police checked the ticket and said he will send my Chittappa but not my father. Moreover he also said we should have got approval from police who are near check post. I pleaded to genuinely missed to follow the formalities and requested him to allow my father as well by explaining why he had to stay here. Then he called his subordinate to go and get the go ahead from authorities in check post and later allowed them. That moment I got my breath back, i left the office room with happiness which words can’t explain. In 20 minutes my dad and Chittappa came back from a miraculous darshan, seeing happy tears from their face; man these are the moments we live for. As always, they also had a great darshan we then headed to car parking.

Moorthy drove us to hotel Bhimas for lunch at 6:45 PM, yes you read that right. We said instead of lunch why can’t they serve tiffen, for which he informed lunch is what included in package and they can’t change, if we want tiffen then we need to pay from our pocket. We were like what crap is this !! We didn’t have any strength to fight and had meals, food was really good.

We started from hotel at 7:15 PM and reached our place at 11 PM. All in all it was a memorable trip which I will not forget in life. Thanks for taking time and reading through this travelogue. I just took 1 photo in the whole trip and would like to sign off with that photo

While driving up hill we saw this portion of hill which gives us the illusion of the Garuda