The PilGRIMACE
Circa 2004 A.D
It was almost 10 Years since I had been on a Pilgrimage, What was the reason for going on a pilgrimage now.The decision making authority had determined it and I was just Executing it. These decisions are in the realms of the Elders and the spiritual ones.
Here it goes....
The 10 years lapse hadn't made any difference to me. What could be Enthusiastic about Tirupathi to a 25 year old ATHEIST. My family considered "ME " as the very reason to visit Tirupathi. People need reasons , I guess so. GOD save them !!
Anyway , this is how the Pil-grimace took place
A Toyota Qualis along with a traditional AMBY was arranaged for the entire trip. The vehicles were tested for their full capacity. My Family is a bit big with members ranging from old,young, fair,dark,naughty,mischevious,reticent ,etc.. The Entire spectrum is available to get oneself acquainted with. There was so much din in the vehicle, for a moment I thought that the entire city-market was into the vehicle. We left home by 9:00 in the morning , but as the journey progressed the atmosphere inside the vehicle started attaining sanctity. SILENCE was the buzzword. I thought that it was because of the reverence to the Lord, but later analysed that it was because of the fasting ( a vow to avoid consumption of anything solid, liquid, gas or PLASMA for that matter).Wow !! what a vow !
An air of strict solitude was preferred by the old and the young found some excitement in chanting and singing in the praise of the Lord. The Journey to me was not so exciting as it did not cut across varied topographies , scenic beauties. The journey was pretty dry and Insipid.As the journey continued, we found pilgrims travelling in buses, cars , trucks & tractors.
The vehicle came to a grinding halt. I woke up from my sleep to get a glance of the Lord, only to realize that my youngest cousin had to attend Nature's Call. Kids are Indeed Disgusting. The journey continued and the vehicle stopped at many places for reasons I could not comprehend.
The Grind was never comming to an end , The destination appeared like a distant dream. I began praying to my ancestors for respite. My prayers were answered, my ancestors on the trees ( erstwhile monkeys) , had indeed snatched the snacks & food packets from my cousin's hand.
For Heaven's sake we had reached Tirupathi the foothills of Tirumala. The hills looked pretty green and had a lot more convoluted roads than I thought. I guessed that the next phase of journey would be a lot more interesting because of the meandering experience one is going to undergo. It turned out to be one HELL of a journey to the HEAVENS.
Kids were given strict warning , not to peep outside the window but to sit tight and quiet. As the vehicle started the ascent and encountering the convoluted roads one after the other.I started experiencing the "G" forces ( approx 2.3G's). It had an immediate effect (Nausea) . No !!! I did not, but I could not stop the others.
No wonder people call nausea an epidemic . It had claimed its share of potential victims by then. The vehicle did not stop, because of the continuous stream of vehicles lined up behind our vehicle. Even if the Lord wanted to stop the vehicle he wouldn't have succeeded because of the stance taken by the driver not to stop the vehicle. I was startled at the speed, he was hitting a decent 90-100 kmph. There were boards on either side of the road , requesting people to keep Tirupati clean. My People had started violating the norm by then. By the time we reached Tirumala, the road was painted white. It must indeed be a herculean task to keep Tirupathi clean.
We finally reached Tirumala, our immediate requirement was to look for Lodging, which was not a problem at all because it was booked in advance before we left home.
It was indeed a grand suite and had was sufficiently accomodative . We rested for sometime and were asked to get ready for the morning darshan. It was early morning and my grandmom insisted that we take bath in cold water ( I was wondering what in the name of Lord venky , she was on to ). I strictly refused and had gained sufficient majority to rebel against her.Finally we all got ready, the women in the atmost grandeur and the reason for that was plain GRANDEURNESS is next to GODLINESS.
We now entered the Q ( Maybe defined as an ODZ - Oxygen Deficient Zone , A system to circumambulate the temple ( The pradakshinas) and a way to control the crowd as well.
The crowd was pretty dense and was moving very slowly @ 1ft every 5 minutes. I took some courage to ask a gentleman in a parallel Q about the status of his Q , He replied that its pace was @ 1ft every 1 hour & they entered the Q the previous day. I shut my mouth and never did I complain about it again.
The Q is an excellent mechanism to understand the dynamics of human relationship. By the end of the ordeal people have forged relationships with their fellow Qmates , to the extent that they have started inviting them over to attend their son /daughter / cousin' s wedding or so. All the time I was remembering Murphy for what he had to say about the Q's . This man should have taken the pain to visit this place , he would have had a chance to add a bunch of new corollaries to the existing ones.
Finally the pushing , pulling, tugging begins as the parallel Q's all converge into one , this is the place of Confluence . The suffocation begins to increase , I suddenly remembered a similar kind of experience , when i was sleeping on the street which was infact a Q to get a ticket to watch the India vs Pakistan Quaterfinals , 1996 Worldcup. Nothing could beat the latter experience for people do not have any respect and their only motive is to secure a ticket and would go to any extent to secure one, I was half dead ( perhaps 76.3 % ) by the time I got my ticket. This was not as bad as that. I could see people attaining various levels of sanctity and praising the lord for everything ,maybe even for the Q .
As the serpentine Q entered the Sanctum Sanctorum , It was becoming all the more crowded and a very faint image of the Diety was visible , It was a bit darker and the diety was adorned with all the precious stones which made it luminous. We were pulled after we had a momentary glance and thats it, we were back on our way outside the temple. The guards were just pulling & Pushing people around , I had a bitter experience , we travelled all the way to get a momentary glance , I guess thats the reason why people call him GOD.
No wonder , I find Mumbai Local Trains a much better place. ( No offence meant )
Thats
I, Me , Myself.
It was almost 10 Years since I had been on a Pilgrimage, What was the reason for going on a pilgrimage now.The decision making authority had determined it and I was just Executing it. These decisions are in the realms of the Elders and the spiritual ones.
Here it goes....
The 10 years lapse hadn't made any difference to me. What could be Enthusiastic about Tirupathi to a 25 year old ATHEIST. My family considered "ME " as the very reason to visit Tirupathi. People need reasons , I guess so. GOD save them !!
Anyway , this is how the Pil-grimace took place
A Toyota Qualis along with a traditional AMBY was arranaged for the entire trip. The vehicles were tested for their full capacity. My Family is a bit big with members ranging from old,young, fair,dark,naughty,mischevious,reticent ,etc.. The Entire spectrum is available to get oneself acquainted with. There was so much din in the vehicle, for a moment I thought that the entire city-market was into the vehicle. We left home by 9:00 in the morning , but as the journey progressed the atmosphere inside the vehicle started attaining sanctity. SILENCE was the buzzword. I thought that it was because of the reverence to the Lord, but later analysed that it was because of the fasting ( a vow to avoid consumption of anything solid, liquid, gas or PLASMA for that matter).Wow !! what a vow !
An air of strict solitude was preferred by the old and the young found some excitement in chanting and singing in the praise of the Lord. The Journey to me was not so exciting as it did not cut across varied topographies , scenic beauties. The journey was pretty dry and Insipid.As the journey continued, we found pilgrims travelling in buses, cars , trucks & tractors.
The vehicle came to a grinding halt. I woke up from my sleep to get a glance of the Lord, only to realize that my youngest cousin had to attend Nature's Call. Kids are Indeed Disgusting. The journey continued and the vehicle stopped at many places for reasons I could not comprehend.
The Grind was never comming to an end , The destination appeared like a distant dream. I began praying to my ancestors for respite. My prayers were answered, my ancestors on the trees ( erstwhile monkeys) , had indeed snatched the snacks & food packets from my cousin's hand.
For Heaven's sake we had reached Tirupathi the foothills of Tirumala. The hills looked pretty green and had a lot more convoluted roads than I thought. I guessed that the next phase of journey would be a lot more interesting because of the meandering experience one is going to undergo. It turned out to be one HELL of a journey to the HEAVENS.
Kids were given strict warning , not to peep outside the window but to sit tight and quiet. As the vehicle started the ascent and encountering the convoluted roads one after the other.I started experiencing the "G" forces ( approx 2.3G's). It had an immediate effect (Nausea) . No !!! I did not, but I could not stop the others.
No wonder people call nausea an epidemic . It had claimed its share of potential victims by then. The vehicle did not stop, because of the continuous stream of vehicles lined up behind our vehicle. Even if the Lord wanted to stop the vehicle he wouldn't have succeeded because of the stance taken by the driver not to stop the vehicle. I was startled at the speed, he was hitting a decent 90-100 kmph. There were boards on either side of the road , requesting people to keep Tirupati clean. My People had started violating the norm by then. By the time we reached Tirumala, the road was painted white. It must indeed be a herculean task to keep Tirupathi clean.
We finally reached Tirumala, our immediate requirement was to look for Lodging, which was not a problem at all because it was booked in advance before we left home.
It was indeed a grand suite and had was sufficiently accomodative . We rested for sometime and were asked to get ready for the morning darshan. It was early morning and my grandmom insisted that we take bath in cold water ( I was wondering what in the name of Lord venky , she was on to ). I strictly refused and had gained sufficient majority to rebel against her.Finally we all got ready, the women in the atmost grandeur and the reason for that was plain GRANDEURNESS is next to GODLINESS.
We now entered the Q ( Maybe defined as an ODZ - Oxygen Deficient Zone , A system to circumambulate the temple ( The pradakshinas) and a way to control the crowd as well.
The crowd was pretty dense and was moving very slowly @ 1ft every 5 minutes. I took some courage to ask a gentleman in a parallel Q about the status of his Q , He replied that its pace was @ 1ft every 1 hour & they entered the Q the previous day. I shut my mouth and never did I complain about it again.
The Q is an excellent mechanism to understand the dynamics of human relationship. By the end of the ordeal people have forged relationships with their fellow Qmates , to the extent that they have started inviting them over to attend their son /daughter / cousin' s wedding or so. All the time I was remembering Murphy for what he had to say about the Q's . This man should have taken the pain to visit this place , he would have had a chance to add a bunch of new corollaries to the existing ones.
Finally the pushing , pulling, tugging begins as the parallel Q's all converge into one , this is the place of Confluence . The suffocation begins to increase , I suddenly remembered a similar kind of experience , when i was sleeping on the street which was infact a Q to get a ticket to watch the India vs Pakistan Quaterfinals , 1996 Worldcup. Nothing could beat the latter experience for people do not have any respect and their only motive is to secure a ticket and would go to any extent to secure one, I was half dead ( perhaps 76.3 % ) by the time I got my ticket. This was not as bad as that. I could see people attaining various levels of sanctity and praising the lord for everything ,maybe even for the Q .
As the serpentine Q entered the Sanctum Sanctorum , It was becoming all the more crowded and a very faint image of the Diety was visible , It was a bit darker and the diety was adorned with all the precious stones which made it luminous. We were pulled after we had a momentary glance and thats it, we were back on our way outside the temple. The guards were just pulling & Pushing people around , I had a bitter experience , we travelled all the way to get a momentary glance , I guess thats the reason why people call him GOD.
No wonder , I find Mumbai Local Trains a much better place. ( No offence meant )
Thats
I, Me , Myself.
posted by kandy at 12:50 PM
1 comments
