Before I drop a line describing the tour, let me ask Sameer an excuse for not being able to get in for the reception. Anyway, I wish your brother a happy married life.
Note: Lazy or busy souls can just read the maroon colored text without any loss of continuity.
Alright, heres the day1 of the tour. The tour was slated to begin at 6:30pm by Narayanadri train to Tirupati, but on that day i.e., 21st Oct '08, there was a meeting in TDC building by TCS where the recruits were told to be present for internship offers. So, we had to take Venkatadri which starts from Kachiguda at 8:00pm. None of us had the dinner. Some went out to get eatables and the train arrived blowing the horn and we were alerted as we had to occupy seats for 11 members. We didn't had reservation and if we fail to occupy seats we have to stand all along the journey of 12 hours, but we managed to get the seats for all of us. We were standing on the platform and the train was coming slowly and the doors of the general compartment were closed. Seeing that Sampath jumped off the platform onto the track and stood the other side, and as the train stopped he got into the train from the emergency window and before any one could come in he already reserved few seats and when the doors are opened we got in and occupied some more seats enough to accommodate us. We were ten as Ravi Krishna was in his home town, Kurnool.
A little after train started moving we opened the food parcels to find Chapatis, Idlis and Pulihora. We all started to hog as if our bellies touched the spine, but that is just to create fun. After dine(actually it was like a breakfast), they started playing cards and I don't know how to play cards. So, I climbed up and started reading a book. Sreenu was accompanying me, he was also reading some other book. It went on till 11:30pm and I started to feel hunger and had biscuits. They were still playing cards. I got down to understand the game but suddenly we heard someone clapping...... nah, not the cop and no prizes for guessing, it was him, oopsie it was her, wrongo, hmm......I think you guys are smart enough. They were a little away from us and we had hidden the cards and pretended sleeping. They came to us and woke me up and I opened my eyes slowly as if was in a deep slumber and gave a five rupee coin of Santhosh. They refused to take it, they wanted more. I said "five rupees kaavala vadda, tesukunte teesuko lekunte ledu" and they said "kya karna leke, uttake donna-by pulling the saree till knees" only God knows what that words and gesture meant. Meanwhile the other was waking up Laxmi and Kiran. They were addressing Kiran by a word(nope I 'll not tell). Then Santhosh gave Ten more rupees and another person came, he may be the leader, these two were telling "ye, students hai, pandra rupye diye" and the other said "teek hai jaando". May be if we would have said that we are from OU campus a little more concession was possible ;-). They left the compartment and we started playing again and from then till tour ended we were calling Kiran by his new name and you will not believe, but after that where ever we went everyone was calling Kiran with the same name, be it a lady shopkeeper at Talakona forest, even in keka movie, a character whose name is Kiran was once addressed by this name etc., It was fun through out the tour. Ok. At 12:30am we were about to reach Kurnool where Ravi was waiting to join us. As the train stopped Laxmi went out to help Ravi find the compartment and after sometime, at around 1:30am everyone was falling asleep and one cannot distinguish whose legs, whose waist and whose hands, it was all jumbled. I was the lone soul awake as I was unable to get sleep in such a tight position and after all someone should look after the luggage and cameras. Even Sampath was awake. At 5:30am they woke up and we both went to sleep and by the time we reached Tirupati it was 8:00am.
By the time we got onto platform a friend of Laxmi who stays in Tirupati was waiting for us. I called him Caliber friend, he had a Bajaj Caliber bike. He took us to the counter for booking "Uchita Darshan" tickets and we were given time at 3:00pm. From there we went to Sudarshnam complex and took "Uchita Lockers" to put all the luggage and went to a motel and had breakfast(not Uchitam). After this we hired an Autorickshaw reached Alipiri at 10:15am, from there Naresh alone took a bus and went to Tirumala and the remaining climbed steps. We started at 10:30am and on the way to Tirumala there is a "Spotted Deer(Duppi in Telugu) enclosure", they are very beautiful to see with their long horns and innocent faces. Through out the steps there are many shops and besides this enclosure we can buy a cup of sliced carrots, cucumber etc., to feed these Deers. Also there was a "Green Valley", where the trees are full of fresh leaves and the trees will be thick, it will be a pleasant view to watch. As we go top we can have a fantastic view of the city and the mountains were covered with smog, the mountains were higher than the clouds. Last night it rained heavily, the steps were sticky and slippery but that was not bothering us with these mesmerizing views, what a wonderful experience it was!! Of course some of us were experiencing it for the second time and some are climbing steps for the first time. There were also a few funny incidents, Santhosh was imitating a boy selling Idlis, he said "garam garam idili" and Santhosh repeated it in the accent, the boy replied "vastava, ra nelaki 1500/- istanu, inka manchiga ammute inka ekkuvaista" ;-) Among seven hills, the last hill called "Mokkalla Parvatam" is the difficult one to climb, it will be almost straight, if lift your head up you will see the steps right in front of your face, this hill has 380 steps and we climbed it not even stopping once. After the penultimate hill and before reaching this hill, we reach the road where buses are run, we have to walk on this road for a couple of kilometers to get to "Mokkala Parvatam". On the way one can see the mountains from which the water will be falling, its like a mini waterfall and as it rained the last night, the water fall was much heavier than normal. We could not stop ourselves from going there and stand below it to drench ourselves but the water was drenching our hearts too. I was so excited that I forget the cellphone in my pocket and when I realised it, I took it out and gave it to Sreenu saying "Daaniki emaindo kasta choodu" and went immeddietly to the waterfall; such was the excitment. I was not caring of the loss, but luckily nothing happened to it, the rexene cover had protected it. With all this, we didn't knew when we climbed all 3,800 steps. It was 1:15pm when we reached Tirumala.
In Tirumala we booked a "Uchita room" and some took bath there and the remaining went to Kalyana Katta to get our heads tonsured. After everyone freshed up we had "Uchita Bhojanam" and it was 5:00pm already, we were running two hours late, but there wasn't any crowd, all the queues, 100/-, 50/- and "Uchitam" were almost empty and we started running till we reached a complex were all were made to wait till 9:00pm. There was a HD LG LCD home theater playing SVBC(Shree Venkateshwara Bhakti Channel) channel, they also served Milk and sambar rice at regular intervals. Naresh and I were not interested to stand again in the queue to eat it, we waited till crowd became less. Like us there was a family waiting, while everyone was suffering in the queue. Among them, I should say a gorgeous young girl, was present dressed in dark blue sleeveless chudidar with chamki and fine embroidery needled on it and hair loosened. It was only adding to her beauty, man, she was awesome. She was not at all bold in her gesture unlike to many girls who wear sleveless tops, jeans etc., She was very feminine, while walking her eyes were looking the earth, the strands of hair was tickling her cheek and her face was covered with that hair, but due to the air her hair was flying and the face was partially visible, it was like playing hide and seek. Now she caresses her hair and pushes it to the back of ear and the side cut out of her face was just enough to kill me. My heart beats fast as I am penning this moment. As she was walking by me her chunni touched my cheek and the fragrance of the perfume was making me unconscioussssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss Oh! where am I! yeah, sorry my mind was occupied by her thoughts and I think if I don't stop this my heart valves may burst now, read on, I will tell you why? Ok, after eating we went to wash hands and besides the washbasin there was a big room where they were cooking food. Ravi stood there watching, there were six big containers and on each container a tap was hanging from the ceiling so that one can just open it to add water for cooking, one of them came and said to Ravi "Sir, upma is getting ready". I don't know what they took Ravi for and now we were expecting upma. But the gates were opened and it was 9:30pm, everyone was standing in the queue and she was just two persons away from me, all started running and these two persons were no exception, I was excited, thought that I can stand beside her. It was not just one side, even she was looking at me in the waiting hall, sometimes I got a doubt, if she is looking at someone else behind me or she was really fascinated at me as I had no hair on the head and the tiredness was showing on my face, but she was looking for me. I was stepping forward, but to dishearten me, even our friends were running, I was stuck, then I told to myself, "manam enthomandini choosamu college life lo edi kuda alanti oka incident, anthe and recollected Varsham movie's dialog, ee vaana manalni kaluputundi, I said ee queue ne manani kaluputundi" and ran with friends. By the time we had darshan of Lord Venkateshwara it was 11:00 pm. It was just a few seconds of watching him after more than 24 hours of waiting, but what can one do, he so popular. Only two laddus per head were given, one is free and other is 5/- and no extra are sold, so Ravi and Kiran went running to the beginning of the long "Uchita Darshnam" line to get two more laddus and they had to run really hard as the line was very long, they have to go to the beginning and reach the end in 30 minutes because after 11:30pm temple closes. They were lucky enough, just after they entered, the temple gates were closed. By the time, they completed second visit, we went and stood in the queue at the laddu counter and suddenly a soft hand touched my right bicep, I turned to see whose hand is that and even she turned to see what she felt on her hand, you know what! she was the same gorgeous girl; excuse me, one second. Hmmm! there is none in my room, I think I felt that touch again;-) Anyways lets get back here:-( She immediately took her hand away but she could not take her eyes away, so was I. We were looking at each other silently but unknowingly our eyes were doing all the talk which our hearts can understand. And after taking laddus, we had to go and even she left with her family and I said to myself "ee queue ne manani kaluputundi". We went to room and after sometime Ravi and Kiran came with four laddus for them. It was around 12:30am and by the time they all fell asleep it was 1:30am and I was thinking of her and I don't know when I slept.
