Last weekend, me and some of my friends had been to Tirupathi. We had some wonderful time during the visit and here are some random thoughts, tips, experience....
1. Plan the visit properly. If you are taking old people to the temple, plan the trip during some weekday and if possible avoid the second weekend of the month.
An old lady standing in front of me in the Queue said it will be heavily crowded during the second weekend .
2. If you are from Chennai, check if the dharshan token can be obtained in Chennai. Token counters in Tirupathi are crowded even during the midnight.
3. Book your rooms at the Tirupathi Town. The rooms at the Tirumala are expensive and is always booked. We had to search nearly 1+ hr for a room. Finally we managed to get only a bathroom to get refreshed for Rs. 50.00 each.
4. Leave your Foot-wear, Mobile Phones, bags, etc. in the room. Standing in Queue to worship God can be taken as blessing, for the token is also fine, but waiting in a queue for leaving the foot-wear is horrible.
5. On my personal view, most of the North Indians coming Tirupathi are less adjustable/ controllable/ ... They always wait for any small opportunity to break the queues, push others, shout at the bottom of their voice and lot more...
6. Too much of crowd to be controlled. Still the Temple Administration team can organize the crowd in much better way. In halfway, there was a confusion between the free dharshan queue and the Rs 50.00 queue.
7. When moving in queues in a cell-like room, there is No Emergency Exit or any option for first aid.
8. In recent times, Laddoos in Tirupathi looks like Idlies, in shape and size.
9. After waiting for so many hours, when you get the Swami dharshan for few seconds, the man on your left will be stepping your feet, the man from back will be pushing you, the man in your right will be shouting Govinda Govinda, at the bottom of his voice, meanwhile the Devasthana people will be pushing outside.
10. Just when moving out of the temple, the Lord Ganesh near the Tambaram Railway station flashed in mind saying :
"
My dear Little Boy..... When you were searching for a work, you would come to my temple atleast once in a week, Now you are placed, and acting to be busy always, don't come even once in a year!!! My uncle Vishnu should have taught you a lesson Now.. [:-)] "
Image from : www.namasthekerala.com
