Trip to Tirupati

My last visit to Tirupati was back in 2002. I was coming to India after my education and subsequent employment in US. I travelled with my extended family. We booked kalyanam ticket and had a good darshan. But, the crowds were annoying to say the least. shoving/pushing and all the bad things that one associates with a typical darshan. I told God, do I need to come Tirupati to go through all this? Can't I visit you in Birla temple in Hyderabad or elsewhere.

Move ahead by 12 years. I moved back to India for good. Visited many temples all over but I never made a genuine attempt to visit Tirupati. I don't know any VIP and do not like to hassle one even if I know one. Somehow, I shut that thought. Once in a while, I used to wonder if I will go to Tirupati ever.

Last weekend was different. A close friend of mine decided to get married in Tirupati and this is a friend whose wedding I would attend even if he did not invite :-). Since accommodation is so tough to get on the hill, I was planning to do a drop-in, spend few hours and return to town of Tirupati for overnight stay. A week before the wedding I came to know the wedding was at 11.30 in the night...oops. I had to plan an overnight stay on the hill now. However, my friend took care of it. Saturday morning, I started driving to Tirupati, with two buddies of the groom who were also attending the wedding like me and who turned out to be thorough gentlemen. One of these guys somehow pulled strings and got a suprabhata darshan for two. Both of them were regular visitors to Tirupati and started discussing how Lord Venkatesa would tease and test before giving darshan. Somehow I firmly believed, since I never made a sincere effort to get darshan, I would n't even get it.

By Saturday evening, we reached the tirumala hill and I realized the 300/- darshan ticket was only available online. So, its either sarvadarshan or no darshan for me. After participating in my friend's wedding till late at 1.30, I went to bed with the plan that as soon as my friends returned from suprabhata darshan, we can start driving back to Bangalore. Meanwhile, JEO in Tirupati, who is a family friend of groom's family came and visited them. My friend's mom asked if I had darshan for which answer was no. At 1.30, before going to bed, I kind of cursed my own apathy in figuring out all these things and making arrangements for darshan. Even though, I had no reason to complain, part of me was disappointed.

At 4.15 there was a knock on my door. When I opened it was not my friends returning from suprabhatam. Someone in groom's family were dropping out of VIP break darshan tickets they had, owing to ill health and they asked me, if I can get ready in 10 mintes, I can join them for Break darshan. Whoa...I could n't believe it. There was barely any time. I took a cold shower, got ready in 10 minutes and rushed to meet the folks waiting outside. Squeezed into an already crowded car, accompanied them to JEO office and got the tickets and 5.30 I was in break darshan queue. I did not have an ounce of idea on what was waiting for me. After walking through the queue and waiting in the hall for 10 minutes, we were ushered into main mandapa. I was drowned in my own thoughts. What a beautiful way for the Lord to give me a darshan. I was immersed in my own Japa. I was n't expecting any pushing and shoving as I knew it was a VIP darshan. walked peacefully into bangaru vakili. few feet away form the garbhagudi. All of us were lead to the room in front of garbhagudi. There he was...in all his glory. I was waiting for my turn. groups of 20 were asked to form 2 queues. After Arati, teertham and sathagopam, they were let go. my previous group ended right in front of me. After their service was over, I was the first man standing right infront of garbhagudi. I stood there for full two minutes. Mesmerized with the darshan and overwhelmed with the opportunity I had. It was surreal. Till 2 hours ago, I did not have an iota of hope about having a darshan. There I was standing right infront of lord for full two minutes. Strange are the ways of God. Whatever it is that I did to owe this blessing from God, I wish I did more of that :-)

For next two hours, I practically was floating in air with joy. At around 8.30 we had breakfast and started out return journey to Bengaluru. I still marvel at the leela of God and I wonder if I will ever get such an opportunity. But thank your Lord. thank you for making my day.

 

This was my third trip to Tiruvannamalai since I moved to Bangalore. Bangalore to T.malai route is excellent till Krishnagiri. From there, regular and shortest route is a nightmare. To avoid that people take a detour which is 100km. I desperately wanted to avoid that Krishnagiri-Vellore-TMalai route. After some research  found that karimanagalam-harur-t.malai route is equally good but thru villages. I kind of decide this is what I will try even if it means a little bit of risk :-) Guess what the journey was real fun and It was shorter by atleast 70-80 kms. The above pic is on the way to Karimangalam from  Krishnagiri. This road leads to Salem and is a lovely drive. You will see lot of lagoons, coconut groves and mountains. It was too bright a day.. so not great for photography. Here is a shot from the road. (Notice the depth of field. shrubs on divider/palms behind the fields/hill)

At Karimangalam high way ends and you enter into village roads. On one hand, I was $hit scared about what if there is a puncture. On the other hand, the adventurer in me was mocking for getting scared :-) It turned out to be really nice drive. There was barely any traffic and road was decent enough that I could manage a 80kmph thru out. It took me 2.30hrs out leisure drive to reach T.malai. I would recommend this as an alternative. not as the best alternative.

On the way from teerthamalai to tiruvannamalai. No village is complete with a cricket team of it own :-) Around 11AM in the morning, bunch of kids were playing cricket. The mountain behind was too big and awesome. But, it was extremely bright and I did nt shoot a great pic. Kids realized some roadie was taking a shot of them and started waving at them.

The route was really scenic. With paddy fields and old grown trees it reminded me of my trips in childhood to my native place. This shot was taken while driving :-) Ya, ya dont give me lectures. I really really slowed down for this. Did nt want to miss the canopy on the road. At the sametime was too bored of stopping at every nook and corner.

Every trip should have a funny story. This guy will be a memory of the trip :-) In a small town called Harur, police baricaded and block the main route. I was like what the @#$%$#. I had to rely on locals. I asked a bystander about the road to teerthamalai. "teerthamalai road enge irukka?" as authentic as I could be. Suddenly that guy asked if I can drop some one on the way. Mind you this was a 20something guy. I obliged with out much thought. Immediately this guy pops in. Opened the passender door, saw that its cluttered with CDs and camera bag. Chose to sit in the back seat. Ha ha..There I was. In the middle of no where in Tamilnadu playing cab driver to a toddy tapper. It was fun conversing with him in my broken tamil for 15 minutes.

Due to an hour delay at the stupid attibele toll booth for no reason, I arrived at sri ramanashram after 6 hours. Finally, I got an accommodation in the ashram premises. This was my accommodation for two days. This might look modest from outside but I would nt trade it for anything in the world. It was a very sufficient and extremely clean inside. Small verandah, followed by a room and a bathroom. For some reason, this kept reminding me of H.D.thoreau's walden hut. Loved the whole experience. Imagine a simple place like this in a garden at foothills of Arunachala. could n't ask for more.

View of sunrise from my cottage. One beautiful thing about this place is...there are no rules in ashram. Anybody can come and do what the way they like to do. do your meditation/chant/read books/hike around hills/take circumabmbulation around the mountain...do whatever as long as it does nt bother others and ofcourse  you need to wear decent cloths. no sleevless/shorts etc.. just cover yourself decently.

My early morning visitors :-) Peacocks are regular fixtures at this ashram. When Ramanamaharshi was alive, he used to pet a lot of animals. monkeys/dogs/deer/cow/peacock/squirrels. They still maintain the tradidion. If dog walks in silently into the prayer hall and sits beside you, dont get alarmed :-) pet it or ignore it. For such a pretty bird, peacock/peahens shouts are annoying. But the like the famous telugu lyric writer said, "Koti raagaala koyilammaku nalla rangu nalamina vaaninEmi kOredi?

This was another close up shot of peacock. This one was about to jump from the wall and was measuring the how bad the jump is going to be. I wish I caught this on video.

The mountain of Arunachala. Geologists and researchers found that Arunachala mountain formed 4 billion years ago and is much much older than Himalayas.  Legend goes that this is a like axle to the earth and otherside of the earth is macchupiccu. I need to verify this fact as I just read this while I was browsing the library at the ashram.

Ramanamaharshi built a temple for his mother. This is a shot from outer door. This is called 'Matrubhooteshwaralayam'.

This is where bhagwan ramana maharshi's body was laid to rest. Over that they put a shiva linga and perform pujas everyday. Setting is very akin to Shirdi but there aren nt as many crowds (thankfully) as bhagawan was against any kind of phony ritualism and what he preached (jnana marga) is not for everybody (including me :-)) but the beauty of this place is that bhagwan made sure no rules are imposed on people. Everybody can choose to follow their method.

Picture of one of the pictures in the hall. This was young Ramana when he was 16. He suddenly decided to renounce the world and came to Arunachala and he never left the place afterwards. For years together, he did harsh tapasya and eventually attained what he set out to do.

This was Ramana maharshi when he was in twenties. I don't know the story behind this picture. But, I just love it for some reason. Just took a shot of this picture for my own records.

Statue of Ramana maharshi. This is where he stood and chatted with visitors/devotees for six months. I will post some more if I have enthu. But this was the last shot in my trip. Return journey was uneventful. No more adventures. I took the longer detour with on a typical highway. I was back home in five hours. That was the end of my trip. So long folks...

A Trip to Srirangam

Let me tell you two stories today.

Once upon a time there was a young girl who was full of love for lord ranganatha (her love was matched only by meeras love to krishna). She was supposed to be found under a tulasi plant and raised by a temple priest. One of her daily activities was to prepare garlands for the lord ranganatha. She wanted to make sure everything is so perfect for the lord that, she would wear the garland once to test and see everything is perfect before sending it to temple. One fine day her father, who is a devout priest found this and was shell shocked. He immediately reprimanded her and asked her send freshly prepared garlands. The next day when garlands were offered to the Lord, Lord found something was missing. Where is the scent of the girl, who would be his future wife, in the garland? Lord had to step in and take some action. He appeared in the fathers dream and requested him to bring garlands only after andal(the girl) wears it. What a beautiful and mesmerizing story. Is n't it..
Now let me tell the second story. The sultan of Delhi invaded a temple. As is the custom in Hindu temples, all the main idols have fortunes buried under. The sultans army looted the fortune and for some reason took idol safely to Delhi. That idol happens to be heart and soul of vaishnavas. They had to get it back. Some of them boldly ventured to Delhi and pleased the sultan with their acts and requested that the idol be sent back. Sultan in his good mood said, "its ok. take it back". What happened meanwhile? Sultan's daughter, the eye of his apple, fell in love with idol and she followed him all the way from Delhi to Srirangam though she was a muslim :-) Eventually she attained moksha merged in to the idol. The sultan got angry and suspected some foul play. He attacked Srirangam again. But, the priests this time pre-empted his move by moving the idol to around south India. Rest you can read in history books.

How can you not fall in love with all these stories and not be curious to see the idol yourself..hmm thats how the seed of visiting Srirangam got sowed in my head. Ever since I moved to Bangalore, I wanted to visit this place. After my elaborate plans got botched up couple of times, my desperation only grew further. The more I read about it, the more I fell in love with it. Srirangam is an island on the river Kaveri. Can there be a better incentive for water lover :-)

So this weekend suddenly my friend D (lets call him Danny) said "shall we go to Srirangam?". I immeidately signed up. Because of the last minute planning we had to take a bus (Ac 2x2 sleeper but back breaking nevertheless). We arrived in Srirangam at 4.30 AM and immediately took a bus to Kaveri. Due to the draught in Karnataka there was barely any water in Kaveri. boohoo..I was extremely disappointed. Early in the morning weather was pleasant and Danny insisted we walk to the temple. After a nice 2km walk, we arrived at the Rajagopuram. Our plan was to take a bath in Kaveri visit the two temples and leave back to Bangalore. So, we never did any research about where to stay and what to do. I was completely relying on Danny who knew the local language and visited the place couple of times. After some contemplation, I remembered about jeeyar swami math near temple and we went there to seek temporary accomodation (I would recommend this if you are looking for clean accommodation in modest price near temple).
We took a quick shower and left to temple. According to temple rituals, the visitors are not allowed from 7.30-9.00AM. We just made in time had a darshan at 7.30. It was beautiful. There were three small idols
and no artificial lighting was used in "garbha gruha".. After a minute or so, we were promptly asked to leave the inner shrine. Any time of the year, there are huge queues here. There is a 50/- and 250/ special darshan which can save the day.

After the darshan, we spent some time sitting in contemplation near the inner shrine. Danny took shots of golden inner gopuram and told me stories that historians somehow missed documenting about the temple :-) When you are with Danny, these stories are added benefits and believe me you would want to pay to listen to these. There is more to say about this but I will save it for some other time.

The Srirangam temple is a huuuuuge temple with 7 outer prakarams(walls). The length of outermost prakaram is close to 2km. So, you can image how big the temple is. After the morning darshan, we visited lof of smaller shrines in the temple. There is the tomb of Sri Ramanujacharya, who wrote(??) the doctrine of vishistadwaita. There is temple of goddess goda devi, mahalakshmi. there was also another small shrine where you can see idols of sri rangantha with 3 goddesses. It was too beautiful to describe.
Going around the temple is like visiting a living fort. It is that huge. After an hour or so, I got really tired with lack of proper sleep and all the walk. We went back to room to take a 10 minute break. That turned out to be a good 2 hr nap :-p. Now, Srirangam is also famous as a shaiva kshetra. There are 5 shrines of panchabhooteswara in TN/AP. Kanchi, Kalahasti, chidambaram, srirangam and tiruvannamalai. I visited all of them except chidambaram and srirangam. So we went to visit the shiva temple. This temple was equally grand in size and stature. We were really lucky to have a very close darshan thanks to some random stranger who let the two of us in after doors were closed for general public. We spent good 30 minutes in the inner shrine.

After that, we had a nice lunch at the math (Did n't meet Danny's quality bar as usual). By then, it was really hot and we decided to take another nap instead of venturing into town again. Next was a trip to 'taayumaanavar temple'. This is a ganesha temple located on a hill in the middle of the Trichy town. It was a bit of trek but was well worth the effort. You can get panoramic views of Srirangam island and Trichy town. We had some TN famous "Jigar thanda". its an icecream fload in almond flavored milk and is a delicacy from madurai it seems. Well worth it. You should definitely try it.

I was really tired by then and just wanted to go to room and simply crash till the night bus. But real blooper was yet to be unearthed. Somewhere in my mind, there was this lingering doubt. Every time they mention Srirangam, they see Lord ranganatha in a sleeping posture on sesha saayi. How come that idol was not in the temple. When I mentioned this to Danny..he flipped out. "What? what did you see in there? There is the huge idol in inner shrine". I was like..@#$%@$#?? It turns out for four months, from July ot October, Lord Ranganatha is hidden behind a curtain. Only face is shown. Because of crowd, darkness, lack of awareness..I did not bother to look besides the curtain. I just saw the three small bronze statues in foreground and thought that was it and came out. whoa..now I had to go and visit the temple again.

(There was a curtain in front of the black statue covering the statue from shoulder to feet).
I was cursing my stupidity as we were running out of time for the last darshan and I was worried I would leave the place with out actually seeing the real idol about whom I read all the stories. We rushed like crazy to the temple only to find serpentine queues. I was really disheartened. Suddenly some guy emerged out of nowhere. This guy is some temple worker who maintains queues..I ended up tipping him for some reason in the morning. This guy saw us..bypassed  all the queues and took us to right infront of 'garbha gruha'. Don't ask me how. I would like to believe in miracles and God's grace :-) Finally, I saw the real idol. It was really majestic. I am going there sometime after Diwali to see the full statue but loved every second I spent in that inner shrine. After that we came out, had dinner and bought Tamil traditional lungi :-) and stepped on to bus for return journey. Phew...that was a long story.

Thanks to my friend, had one of the memorable trips and I woud love to go there again sometime. May be not such an elaborate trip but to visit the ranganatha in his full ornate glory.

Kids say the darndest things

Kids say the darndest things.

I know I know. I copied the title from bill cosby. (Sorry old man, btw, loved ur show).

This blogis about Vibhu. He is such a sweet kid. Time just whizzes away when you are with him. Vibhu is quite a creative and naughty kid but he does seem to understand his boundaries well. Rarely he pushes them which make him the sweetest kid around :) He is 2.5yrs old now but has the vocabulary of a 4 yr old. So, naturally, he catches us off guard almost every day.

That he Vibhu is creative was evident for us early on here are couple of glimpses. Knowing V-dad's aversion to movies, I decided to introduce him to concept of movie. The first movie he saw was 'Wednesday' (good hindi movie). five minutes into the movie, he asked me "lilote edi babai?". (Where is the remote babai?) I was like wwhaattt?? slowly it dawned me that, he thought that he was watching a big TV. lol. can you imagine the kids mind.
Another instance : the term for peeing in vibhu-speak is "chi chi povadam". One day we were in hometown karimnagar. our house is 30 years old with open ventilators just below the ceiling , you know the kind. It was raining heavily and there was small leak thru ventilators. Suddenly, Vibhu shouts at his lungs off.. "Kitikeelu chi chi potunnayi. adigo adigo.. kitikeelu chichi potunnayi". We had laugh of life. This is when he was 1.5 yrs old.

An year has passed. Vibhu is like a non-stop talking machine. He has atleast 6 adults around him to pamper and learn various stuff from and then there is the floating population of another 10 people. Everyday he learns something really new and surprises us. Other day he spilled glass full of milk on bed. following day, his mom put a glass full of milk on the floor and asked him to go have it as she knew I was supervising. She called out saying "Vibhu..Jaagratta". pat comes the reply from him "aa..jaagartane" :) unbelievable how and where he learnt to apply this. Everyday he picks up a new word from somewhere and uses it so perfectly that we are left zapped. He taught himself stuff like "already", "tappakunda". dont ask me where does a 2.5yrs old use these things.. He has a way with words.

Lets come to the main story of the blog. Vibhu loves stories. He is not a shy kid. After hearing to a story 2-3 times, he adds his own masala and narrates the story where he becomes the hero. One of his favorite stories is fight between vali and sugreeva and how Lord Rama hid behind a tree to kill Vali. (Dont gasp. I found it impossible to find a mythology story with out mentioning death. So, I said to heck with it. Credit to the kid, he takes it well too). This story sessions have been on for close to an year. He is matured from re-telling the story to doing role-plays. for ex: suddenly he comes to me and says, "babai, nenu surasa..nuvvu hanuman.. ninnu mingutunnaa.." or he takes his toy mace and says "orey duryodhana, nenu bheemunni ra, nee todalu viraggodataara.." and "babai, nenu nee meeda agneyastram vestunnaa, nuvvu sudarshana chakram veyyi" etcc.

Off late, he started this new thing. Whatever story I tell him in the night, he wakes up and tells with his own masala. Other day, I told him the story of Hanuman not finding the sanjeevani creeper and lifting the whole mountaint to lanka. Following day, he woke up and immediately started telling me, "babai, jai hanuman sanjeevani edi edi ani illanta vetikaadu. nenu mancham kinda daachipetta ani cheppagaane, akkadiki vacchi teesukupoinaadu."

Typically he wakes up around 6:30 and I around 8:30. After lot of careful explaining, he stopped waking me up for those two hours. Even if he tries to wake me up by poking his fingers in eyes I feign deep sleep and he leaves in 1-2 minutes. But last week it was different. After trying to wake me up for 2 minutes, he took his toy mace and started hitting me on the chest "Kumbhakarna, Le.. Le.. orey Kumbhakarna Le..Le.., Raavanuniki haayi ayindi. Kumbhakarna Le.." Needless to say, I woke up laughing my heart out. Finally, I started investigating who told him this story. Apparently, Dad had showed him a graphic picture of sainiks waking Kumbhakarna in Chandamama July edition.

So, thats vibhu for you. bye for now.

Driving around Hyderabad : Part 1

Returning to blog after a long time. One of the reasons is to blog about my trip to Medak.
Very first I ever heard of Medak was when I was a kid and started taking interest in assembly elections. The name Medak stuck in my mind as it is neither Urdu nor Telugu word nor English. The linguist in me could never figure out the genesis. Then I heard of Medak in some text book lesson "medaku patnam churchni choodu". I heard of Medak and its church couple of times later on wanted to visit when I got a chance. This weeekend that chance came. My good friend R's in laws are from Medak and its just 80km from Hyderabad. He was going for a day trip. So, we tagged along.
The party consisted of 7 adults and 2 kids. R, J, Uncle, aunty and the cute little sniggy in one car. My bro, sil, me and Vibhu in another car. We started at 8:30am unusually punctual for the 2 couples in picture. First stop was 'mallanna gutta'. A nice, not-so-famous village temple where deity resides in a cave on a small water pond. It was interesting. pleasant place only marred by the hot burning sun. I enclosed a pic of sniggy and vibhu. They had a great time playing in the temple and its 5-storeyed chariot.


After spending an hour, we moved on to next pit stop. Ramayapalli was the next stop. We got to see uncle's native place and the house where he grew up. It was a simple but resourceful village. Nice place to own a farmhouse (not a far-fetch as its 80Km from city, with enough water and fertile soil to grow all kinds of trees). We had an awesome lunch thanks to uncle's brother and family. We also got to meet cute and bright Lavan Kumar. 3.5 years kid who travels 30kms in auto to go to a decent school. Made me wonder if we were going back or ahead in time. It was paddy and sugarcane season, so checked their fields. After a nice lunch, we went to Medak. From there we went to a place where the much celebrated local fare 'edupayala jatara' happens.
Frankly, it was so hot, this was a part which I would nt have minded skipping. Moreover, the temple, with some live chicken cutting was pretty gory. Glad I averted my gaze in time. I dont want to remember any other things there. So, lets skip it. This is a place for hard core bhaktas or geologists who are interested in Deccan plateau's rocky terrain. Rest can avoid.

Thats a glimpse of Deccan plateau and unusual rock formation for you. Unfortunately, with the crazy painting, u cant seem them in natural forms.

Then we went to to the famous church. Cathedral is second tallest in Asia with gothic architecture. Frankly, I was a bit disappointed it was nt as I great I was imagining it to be. I have seen better churches in the west. But, once you enter inside, there are three stained glass walls which are really worth all the effort that we put in. Church is a stone structure with out much ornation. about 175 feet tall. After that we met uncle's good old friend who showed us what good hosting is about. In about 3hrs of span, I ate a samosa, kaju katli, dry fruit laddu, ice-cream with fruits and drank some frooty. Talk about obliging the host :-) It turned out, today was Easter. Nice place to go on easter. My reflections on Medak -- Take a peek at it if you are on the way. Otherwise its a small remote town with hardly any development in the past 40 years.
A pic of Medak church



So long folks...
-v
PS: Btw, I finally figured out how Medak's name came. Way back in 1100-1300AD when kakatiyas ruled from Warangal, there was a femine and Medak was the only place where they could grew rice. So, this came to be known as 'metuku seema' (The land of the rice grain). Metuku eventually became Medak.

LuckByChance

Wow, its been really really long time since I wrote anything on blog. Have been to Rajasthan during this period and had a lot of stuff to write about. But, never got the mood. Hopefully, oneday I will update it with pics et al.

What brings me to my blog today. A hindi movie called 'LuckByChance'. Farhan Akhtar has become a cult nowadays. More so for the multiplex going IT kind of folks. The dude is talented and multifaceted. After 'Rock On' brand akhtar value seems to have gone up. But alas, he is no good actor. I could nt connect to his character either in RockOn or in LuckByChance.

Surprisingly, the movie got glorious reviews and pulled me to the theater. What happens when I go there. Well, the Akthars are no different from YashRaj banner. Yashraj inspires from the chickflix of hollywood. Akthars are doing the same from drama movies of hollywood. Luckbychance is the story of upcoming actor who is talented and clever. Movies shows the underbelly of bollywood and story is pretty realistic. But if you are a veteran of hollywood dramas, you have seen it all.
One street smart guy with hunger in his belly comes to town, makes it big, loses his friends with success and then realization and redumption. Wheter its a mafia dealer, investment banker, of Priyanks Chopra in Fashio, story is same. Just that this movie exposes bollywood and typical stereotypes of bollywood.

Movie is watchable on DVD. otherwise its too slow and long for what it wants to portray. Likeable are the characters of konkona sen-sharma and isha sharvani(this lady is new shabana azmi, although not there yet completely).

Director Zoya did a great job though. Technically, this is a well made movie. 'Raahi Re' song is toooo good. one of the best I heard off late.

My reco: Buy the audio CD and DVD. No need to rush to theaters.

My trip to Shirdi

Howdy folks? Have nt updated my blog in a long time. Though I've read so many books during this time and watched a ton of movies, nothing was worth writing a review here. ( I take that back, I was a bit lazy :) ). So, how have you been doing? Remember my post in March. I went to Shirdi to visit Baba and could neither find an accomodation nor the darshan. Well, I really felt snubbed by the Lord and badly wanted to go again. Last weekend, I went there along with my friend R. R apparently was a frequent visitor to Shirdi as a child and knows the place in and out. He adviced me to read Baba's biography before the trip to enjoy the trip better. (Believe me, it was an advice worth following). He also pulled some connections to get acco and premium darshan.
So, there we were on Ajanta express on Friday evening. We had packed some delicious meal and journey was fun. We got off the train at Nagarsol and took a cab to Shirdi. Nagarsol is a small village. I mean really really small like say Gunjapadugu. Technically, trains do not stop there. But Railway authorities realized that, it is the nearest train stop to Shirdi for folks coming from Hyderabad and created a stop. So, you can imagine the commotion in such a small place the moment a train arrives. In any civilized place, you would imagine, the bus authorities would tie this train arrival time to send some buses to Shirdi. But this is India. No such luck. So, private taxies like qwalis, maruti vans rightfully cash the opportunity. we squeezed into a Maruti van paying 50/- for 40km journey. 2 of us along with the driver squeezed in the front. God knows how many were there in the back. (something like 6 adults and 3 children..whoa). We arrived in Shirdi had breakfast at a place which was 1 on a scale of 10. Then set out to meet the temple PRO and R got us some clean but nothing fancy kind of accomodation for dirt cheap price. Saturday happened to be "Gudi Padwa" in Maharashtra which was a big day for them. You can imagine the crowd. I was wondering if Baba was again getting ready to show his ire on me. PRO told it was one of the busiest days for them and he was not sure if he could provide a previlege darshan we were hoping for. Anyways, general darshan Q was taking 3-4 hrs. So, we decided to visit 'Dwarakamayi' and 'Chawadi'. The two places where Baba used to sleep for his sixty years of stay in Shirdi. R said, that should nt be a popular place and we can spend some quality time in the masjid(dwarakamayi) where Baba used to stay. We were in for a rude shock. R's knowledge was 10 years out of date. There was a 1.5hrs Q to enter the masjid and we had no choice but stand in the line. While standing in the Q, I finished most of the Baba's bio that I got along. In the masjid you can find places like the 'dhuni' where baba started a fire a 100+ years ago and it is burning non-stop since then. (Ashes from the dhuni is what you see on devotees forehead). There is also a pillar to which baba used to lean and stone on which he used to sit while talking to devotees. It was a great feeling to see those places after reading about them in the book. From there we went to Chawadi. Baba used to alternately sleep in these places. After that were a bit exhausted and had a lunch in some AP tourism place, punnami. I did nt like it at all. R gave an OK rating. Then, we tried to see if we could manage a general darshan but realized its gonna be a long wait in the queue and ditched the idea.
In the afternoon, we visited places in the samsthan like the book stall, gurusthan (the neem tree where baba was first spotted)., lendy baag (a garden which was planted by baba) and were idling the in the temple complex). At around 4, we again contacted the PRO to get a pass for the evening aarati darshan. we were asked to meet at the main entrance at around 5:30 for the evening aarati. We were just biding that time near temple. Finally at around 6 we were let in. and at 6:30 the aarati started. It was GREAT. I was standing just 3 feet away from Baba's Idol and samadhi for good 30-40 minutes. thouroughly enjoyed the whole experience. After that, we went back to our room, after evening ablutions, set out for dinner. Since we were standing for most part of the day (roughly 7-8 hours), we were dead tired and really wanted to sleep. (dinner at woodlands was good. I ordered bisibelebath since it was a kannada place, it was good). After a long day, we slept like deadlogs. The plan was to wake up by 5 and stand in the Q for a general darshan by 6pm. That way we can avoid the crowd that gets accumulated for morning aarati. It was a perfect plan. we had darshan within 40 minutes. It was also peaceful. No pushing and shoving. After spending good 10 minutes infront of baba, we spent some time in mukhdarshan hall. R was meditating, I tried but dozed off :). After breakfast, R wanted to do 108 parikramas around guru samsthan. I was nt sure if I was upto the task, but could nt imagine sitting alone waiting for him. So, joined him. Because of the crowd, it took us 90 minutes for such a small distance. Imagine doing that after spending an entire day standing. But, surprisingly it was nt that bad. we had fun. Then we collected some 'oodi' (ashes from dhuni) which are distributed freely. Bought some posters and books, donated some money to samsthan for poor feeding. It was around 10 by then. We again came back to room and tried to eat at the prasadalaya. But the Q was serpentine and I discouraged the whole idea. Then we went to Khandoba temple. sat there for the aarati. After lunch, we happily came to room for a nap. Boy, we desperately needed that :)) lol.
At around 4pm, we went out to shopping. I bought some toy for Vibhu and some printed kurta for myself with lots of Om symbols on it. The kinds you see on sanyasi's.. lol.
Typical tradition in the Shirdi was to see Baba as soon as you arrive and take leave from him before you leave. R wanted to do the same and we stood once more in the Q for dwarakamai. It was raining and pretty chaotic. The trip was so much fun till that point. I somehow lost my patience got into fight with people were cutting lines. urghh.. how could I not .. lol. In the whole process, we realized, we were getting delayed and had to take a call whether to stand in the line and risk missing the train. Baba finally let us in time. When we came back, we realized R lost his 3000/- worth nike sandals right infront of Baba's humble abode. It was a bit shocking. Urgh..first the fight..then this.. I was like hmm...looks like some one is trying to teach us a lesson. We did nt have much time anyway to contemplate. We rushed to the room, checked out, got dinner packed and were againing bargaining with Maruti Van walahs to transport us back to Nagarsol. Return trip was nt eventless journey. Over all, it was except for the tailpiece. Thanks to R for the company and his aunt whose knowledge abt the place, contacts with samsthan made our trip so memorable.
Oh yea forgot to mention, we also visited Baba's famous devotee houses some of which are still preserved. R's aunt translated many books about baba from marathi to telugu and gave the returns on the books to samsthan. So, all her knowledge about the place added much more meaning to our trip. My advice to future travellers, read Sai's bio before you go. That way you can explore and feel the place better.
My laments, I wish the previleged aarati passes were available for a price like in Tirupati for a price. That would have been fair to everyone. I wanted to give feedback to samsthan but totally forgot abt it.

ufff... what a long post. I will take leave.