Day two - Part 1

Scene 4 : snoree.. zzzzzz
Saturday morning 3 AM

The alarm started ringing. first impulse. to shut it up. then to look at time. It was 3 AM in the morning. I looked around trying to find out where I was. It was all dark and I felt like I was in a strange place. This bed was much harder.Memory returned slowly, I was in tirupati with the guys. It was Saturday morning and we were supposed to stand in the queue for buying tickets. I grabbed my phone and called Sridhar who was sleeping across the room. His phone started to ring. a very silly ring tone. very very silly. so silly that it woke up Arvind also. Then we decided to sleep for some more time.

Scene 4 .1: more snoree.. zzzzzz
Saturday morning 3.30 AM

better get up now. else you wont get darshan this time also.

Lights were on and Sridhar and Arvind were up and walking about. Shiva and Vinay were still down. i decided to wash up and get ready to get moving.
"Someone wake these people up.. or we will be late, " said Arvind. "i think its enough if we reach by 4 or so." Sridhar said. I eagerly tugged at Shivas blanket, "get up Shiva.. we wont get tickets like it happend last time"

slowly they woke up, and we took the car to the place where the counters would open.

Scene : 5 Ticket counter near the main bus stand in Tirupati
4 Am Saturday morning

As we moved past the defunct X-ray machine and rather careless security guards, we saw that the number of people that were there was larger than what we had seen last night. It was partially dark, partly lighted and one could see people lying around or dropping off to sleep propped up against the benches or the walls, all in an imaginary queue which started where they slept or sat or stood.. the entire population spectrum was represented, women, children, youth, senior citizen.. persons of all categories and backgrounds. A railway station kind of feel. a temporary place before people move on to their destinations. ticket counters closed, eager people establishing themselves well in in advance hoping to get a ticket. the number of tickets would be limited per day and hence this queuing.

in that darkness, we could not make out where the queue started or ended. "we can stand here." i suggested. "which one is the counter?" Arvind wanted to know. "these counters will be opened." Shiva said. "Might as well sleep there for some time." i said. "We should be in the queue and then we can sleep" Sridhar had his plans clear. "I will jump over the bench here, slowly one by one we can get in, sit on the bench and sleep." Shiva the courageous. "Dude they may get violent if we break the queue. also its not fair on the people sleeping behind us." the not so courageous me pretending morality. "its alright, since we dont know where the queue starts or ends, we are just trying to get a place to sit and nap. moreover the number of people here is quite small, they will all get tickets no matter we join in between or in the end." So saying Shiva befriended a bloke sitting in the queue and got in.

Since most of the time, a bus load of people would come and they would send a couple of representatives to come and wait in the queue letting the others wash up etc, its not uncommon to see a few peoples coming and joining in the middle of the queue. and one by one we slowly managed to squeeze into the queue and procure a seat on the bench. we had to wake up one rather sleepy gentleman to make room for our acrobatics of climbing over the dividing barrier and ploping on to the bench.

as we all settled, one by one we started dropping off.. each in his own comfortable position.. the fan turning reluctantly, the occassional mosquito managing to get past my defences and drinking my blood.

Scene 6 : in the queue still, not even a single inch progress, since the counters were closed still
7:30 AM saturday morning

"Damn this blood sucking mosquito." I was seriously pissed. that mosquito was totally targetting poor me. why couldnt it feed on Sridhar? I complained to Arvind "Sir, yeh banda mujhe hi target kar raha hai.. aap ko kyon nahi kaat ta?" "Tumhaara garam khoon hai nau jawaan.. isi liye.." Arvind says it like he is a great grand dad of multiple little Saraswats. Sridhar had managed to buy a couple of newspapers, and briefly there was a small fight for who would get what section. i mainly needed it to swat and discourage young mosquitoes who were after my young blood. i managed to get one eventually, but Vinay felt that it was a fluke, which was ofcourse not true. I had planned that strike, and by gaad, i had struck with vicious force and focus. it never stood a chance from the moment i detected a faint shadow of its flapping wings and heard its almost silent buzz. it was finally a success for me and i celebrated by showing around the bloody carcass in a rather triumphant manner. i wanted to do a small dance, and i tried to get up also. but was rather discouraged by the poor response from my companions (which was suprising cos that mosquito was a public menace and by getting rid of it i had avenged the multiple itchy boils on almost every elbow in a 2 km radius) and secondly by the sheer lack of space between the narrowly crammed benches.

as time was being killed along with unsuspecting and rather slow mosquitoes, Sridhar began talking rather hotly at a gentleman. "Hegri? ondu, yeradu jana idre ok,. aidu, hattu janranna tandre yellgohodu? aag dinda obbobranne serista iddira. neeve yochne maadi, idu sari naa?" the gist of it being, one particular person, who had sat in the queue was allowing so many people to get in. in spite of the fact that we ourselves had cut the queue, Sridhar was arguing with a strong belief that good was fully on his side and he could not lose. I also joined him ignoring my faint conscience which kept reminding me that we also had cut the line, but a good 3 hours before this gentleman and his long list of relatives. so the early bird probably got the benifit of the cut. "Yenri, idu sari naaa? namgenu illa, namge ticket sigutte, but hinde iddoru, 4 ghantege bandu nintiddare. neevu heege bandu bittre, paapa avru yen madodu?" which basically was an attempt to seek the goodness in him. stressing on him that there were people who were waiting since 4 AM for tickets, and becos of him and his relatives cutting the queue, the ones behind would not get it. we would get tickets since there were only about 50 people ahead of us. but we were concerned about someone deserving, who waited in the queue, who did not have any companion to save a place for him, that unknown face who probably would not feel so good and would ask questions of Balaji saying ki, in spite of standing in the queue so honestly, he did not get the tickets cos of some dishonest people getting in their relatives and friends. eventually, Sridhar calmed down. it was a matter of people looking at their own selves and thinking about other humans, if that courtesy is missing then one cant help them. today a man may be in a winning position becos of his so called street smartness, but tomorrow, he will be at the receiving end of things, then probably he will remember his mistakes and regret it. all part of the play of life ..

"If this were the North, then people would fight so much even if they are doing wrong, maa behen karne lagte dono." Arvind told us. "its quite common to break the queue and then fight."
"people forget the purpose, they only look at the ends, not the means with which they achieve those ends.."

I looked around, families sitting in small circles. with the bags and valuables in between, kids sleeping on their moms laps.. some kids playing, creating new games just like that. a person near a pillar, with his shirt off, cleaning his arm pits, and combing his hair.. basically using the whole hall as his rest room. the railway station smell was getting more strong as the number of people increased and probably started using the toilets.

security guards started popping up and doing the rounds; a shrill whistle indicating their presence. trying to make a organized queue out of the small islands of humanity that had come to visit the lord. they were used to seeing this everyday, and you could make out in their manerisms. there was no pity for the old, nor some care for the stumbling child, just form the queue, or he will blow the whistle and irritate the hell out of everyone present.

there was some movement behind the desk at the counter, and everyone rose with utter curiosity to see what was happening. there was a mini chaos as people got up and tried to move in all four direction at the same time, but that was resolved quickly as the security guard used his supreme power to tame the crowd.

the guy behind the counter seemed to be taking forever to start issuing the tickets. we watched the seconds ticking by so slowly. Nine AM seemed a millenium away as we waited. time being relative may not be absolutely true, but it is easily manipulated by the state of mind that you carry along with you.

Scene 7 : Counter opens
9:10 AM

"Started!!" Sridhar exclaimed. " but he is ex-PSU employee it seems. so slow and super-steady"

"OK, money for the ticket, i have a 1000 rupee note. it will be even for the 5 of us, since the ticket is 200." i ventured eager to posess the peice of printed paper in my hand which would ensure that i would get a darshan tomorrow morning.

"The queue does not seem to be moving at all." Arvind said,

"I hope the other counter does not start issuing tickets while this guy delays, then we wont get tickets.." Shiva said.

"That damn idiot.. wats wrong with him.." i switched over to panic mode

"no tension man, there will be about 750 tickets per counter. so it wont get over so fast."

Soon it was our turn at the counter, and as we got finger printed and photo graphed with an antique looking webcam, i realized that the first step was done. we had gotten the tickets. now, the second challenge, a place to stay. We had taken the tickets for the Archanaanantara Seva.

The darshan was for 4:00 AM the next morning (Sunday) which meant that we would either have to catch the morning bus to the top of the hill i.e. Tirumala and directly stand in the queue for Darshan, or travel up Saturday evening and stay in Tirumala Saturday night.

We decided to anyway try and book a room and moved to the the next queue for the accommodation. which we managed to clear after another half hour wait. The room cost 50 bucks with 350 as caution, refundable deposit. we could get only one room. the guy at the counter told us that to get 2 rooms, we would need to buy 2 separate tickets, which made no sense at all, but we moved on since it was a very short time that we would be sleeping anyway.

triumphantly, we started back to the hotel. Shiva's voice box had recovered by a good 60% and he was audible and intelligible again. we ordered food on arrival and devoured a whole host of idlis, vadas, dosas with sambar and chutney. we emptied the restaurant i think, becos when Sridhar tried to order more, they said, the breakfast section was closed for the day.

After the heavy breakfast, there were some noises being made about the plan, whether to walk, or drive up the hill, what options did we have, what alternatives were best etc.. but everyone felt that some sleep was needed, and all plans could be made after getting up whatever be the time. it was close to noon now, and a good 3-4 hours sleep would restore us to some reasonable shape. the wait in the queue and sleeping in a strange position had given me a nice body ache and i was all game for a solid nap.

Sridhar insisted on keeping the TV on with some telugu song playing. which was bad on his part cos i wanted some peace and quiet..

the blinds were drawn, the ac making a rather loud noise, the fans turning full speed, people with blankets covered, we drifted off slowly.. and slept peacefully.

(to be continueeeddd)