Monday, April 13, 2009

Day 2 part 2 extends into day 3 (conclusion)

loud noises and bright lights woke me up from a strange dream which i could not recall try as hard as i might.. it seemed like evening, and the lights in the room were on. arvind and sridhar were talking about the plan, with shiva adding something in between.. alternatives were being discussed, plans made, destroyed and remade. all of these guys had seen quite some risky projects to a successful conclusion and were using all that experience to decide upon a optimal approach to the goal.

going on a recap, it was saturday and we were in tirupati. we had started friday nite and managed to get tickets after a longish wait in the queue which started saturday early morning..after a rather heavy breakfast everyone had settled down for a well deserved nap, and now the planning was on for getting to the top of the hill and being in time for the darshan on sunday early morning.

my grumbling stomach made me skip the planning phase. partly it was fault of the heavy breakfast that i had greedily consumed and the midnight dinner of the past night. 2 idlis, 2 vadas, 1 dosa, 2 cups of tea.. polishing off multiple tumblers of sambar and chutney... i spent a lot of time in the loo contemplating all issues of economic and political importance, current affairs, state of the indian cricket team, things of office and other issues of national importance like what to eat for dinner.. that went on untill the lights were turned off.. which was strange in a 3 star hotel as claimed by the management of bhimas. on coming out of my thoughts and listening to the guffaws outside, i concluded that it was sridhar clowning around.. who can imagine a future system architect behaving like this.. kiddish.. thats what i call it.. junk behaviour as he would call it.. :)

after successfully ending my stint at the bhimas loo, sridhar went on to disrupt the well laid plans by bringing in some strange non-probable but scarry scenarios. so the plans which were well laid were thrown out of the window, and a new set of ideas and actions brought in.. we decided to park arvinds car at some safe place and climb the hills by foot, come back downstairs by bus, maybe taake a bath at the hotel, and then eat dinner and then ride up the hill, stay in the cottage that we had booked and sleep..

we started off with this plan in mind, mr broken sound box aka flying shirt aka GVV aka Gudaru aka shee kee aka shiva had to buy clothes... can you imagine? this guy did not even care to bring a spare undi.. "i will buy it in tirupati" he believes in promoting enterprise and local economy whereever he goes.. even in shenzhen he used to promote pizza hut and mac d which was strange cos considering it was china, he should have gone for chinese delicacies. but he also used to order and eat JIDAN CHOUFAN (egg fried rice) at the restaurant opposite bai cao yuan with such gusto that one would mistake him for a regular and mistake the damned yucky fried rice for egg biryani from hyderabad's most famous bawarchi. thats shiva.. he is the unknown, the unpredicatable, the man whos shirt magically flies off as soon as he enters the car and comes back on automagically when he come out in the public.

so the shopping was retro fitted into the schedule and on the way to the reliance mart, we got a call which promised better accomodation provided we got to Tirumala pretty quick.. as we were buying clothes for shiva, a couple of t-shirts caught my attention and arvind and me decided to buy them.. sridhar also joined in, and we made a lot of business for Anil Dhirubai Ambani or is it Mukesh Dhirubai Ambani who owns reliance mart? god knows.. anyway.. it went to the ambani family. who anyway were our customers.. :D..

so!!!!!!!!!!! the circle completed, we dropped our earlier plans of climbing up the hill, and decided to ride up..the security check was cleared with some difficulty.. as the lady at the checkpost kept on asking us to open this bag and that one.. i was ill prepared for this.. i was in my bermuda relying on these guys' plans of climbing up the hill, and i felt appropriate attire which did not hamper the movement of the breeze was ideally suited for the hot evening. it turned out to be my waterloo, as i had to get out of the car for the security check and come out wearing (pay attention now, this might be the next fashion statement) a formal full sleeve shirt pink and white stripes, and a military green bermuda with spaghetti lada to hold the damned thing up.

people all around.. security men and women equiped to deal with the naxal threat, carrying all kinds of guns and ammunition, tourists who had to stop at the security checkpost, men, women and (faar gaads sake) children.. all of them witnessed the spectacle of the man in the pink formal shirt with the green bermuda. at that moment i decided to shave my head to lose my identity and become one amongst the million other anonymous GUNDUS (gundu = shaved head, a lovely metaphor, a class of people, a stereotype, typically applied for people who visit tirupati, it could also be personification of the shaved head.. i.e, refering to the person as the shaved head. identity of the person becomes the shaved head.. sorry for the ramble..)

after the embarassing episode at the security checkpoint, which will go down the annals of tirupatis history as the day when the clown from bangalore caused a hilarious interlude in a otherwise serious and tense environment, arvind drove up the hill that would take us to tirumala. on the way the shades were brought out and some monkey pics were taken. monkeys being us. the sunset on the way up was so beautiful, and we stopped for a few snaps...

by the way all the pics are available on Arvinds orkut profile at the following location (http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Album.aspx?uid=288845154220327809&aid=1238114398)

as we reached the peak, we caught hold of a fellow who was supposed to direct us to the cottage. he also arranged for us to get a few extra laddoos. 20 extra to be precise :D... that was a bonus, a bumper lottery. :D.. together with 2 laddoos per person that we would get tomorrow, it was a total of 30 laddoos.. with a faraway, dreamy look in my eye, i drooled profusely at this thought.. others shook me fearing me to have gone into a irreversible trance...

we went to the cottage that the unknown guy directed us to, atleast we tried to and i know for sure that he misdirected us. we got lost a few times on the way.. arvind found one familiar stretch of road which he immediatly pronounced to be leela-parking-1-ramp's twin. this stretch helped us decide that we were going in circles.

we went upto a few places asking people for 'sri pada' guesthouse. but no one could direct us to the lords feet. its kind of symbolic i feel, looking behind.. thats the way it is in life, only you can find your path.. people on the way will only confuse you, you have to take in all that they say, and then decide for yourself..

sridhar intimidated one guy who was having his usual late evening sit on the rock.

sridhar : "Sri padaa guest house?"
guy-on-rock (looking like a clam on the sea bed) : "telugu?"
sridhar : "avunu.. sri pada guest house telsa?"
guy-on-rock (now looking more like a sea cucumber) : "..."
sridhar : "emmeeee?"
guy-on-rock : "dum"
sridhar : "sri pada guest house.."
guy-on-rock (with a gleam of recognition) : "DUM"
sridhar : "i think he does not know.."
guy-on-rock (understandingly ): "dum, dum, dum..."
sridhar : "lets go.."

after attempting to digest this conversation, and trying to interpret the sea cucumber's in the light of various schools of abstract philosophy, we concluded that he might have a follower of zen school of thought, the dum being a local variant of the mu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(negative))... considering the advaitic approach, the dum could be a cross reference to the most popular neti (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neti_neti).. though all others concluded him to be a crack pot (might be taken literally also i think..) [http://7777777s.com/ppframe_files/frame.htm] [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crackpot], i was of the opinion that he was a self realized soul or a person who was pretty close to the ultimate goal.. i wished to remain as a disciple at his feet but the thought of the laddoos did not let me go.. guess i was not ready to give up the temptations of the world and start my journey on the path..

eventually we managed to find the guest house, and after dumping the bags, we went out to get the laddoos from the special counter.. then we searched high and low for oily snacks and eventually found one place. we polished off his stock and also drank some badam milk. then we ate puffed rice (sridhar and me without the onion) and then went on to eat dosa and idli.. arvind wanted to do some shopping, while shiva, vinay and me went off to find a place to shave off our heads. we had a small scuffle with the guy who minds the chappals. he was in some strange mental state and was quite rude. after getting in we got scaared of the crowd and returned. the guy who had taken our chappals asked for rs 5 even though it was written in bold that it was a free chappal stand maintained by the temple.. corruption does not even let go of the holy or the pious. nothin shall escape the grip of kali.

we returned back to the room and spent a little time talking.. then after tucking in arvind and sridhar, the rest of us went again to the tonsuring place hoping for a slack in business which would mean a slightly lesser turnaround time. it was reasonable.. and we became baldies.. one had to give a rs 10 to the barber even though the board said in bold that it was free tonsure. else he would rip the hair out and you would live to regret it from the bottom of your heart or from the root of the hairs on your scalp rather.

by the time we finished the tonsuring, it was sunday morning 1:30 am. we returned home feeling all wierd on the head and took a bath.. woke up the sleepy heads and proceeded to the darshan. the queue was long as ever and we entered the queue at about 4:30 or so.. going though the labyrinth of twisty turny paths...

we finally entered the temple complex. the glittering gold and the shimmer of silver reflecting the just rising sun.. it all looked beautiful.. the crowd all merged at this point and it was basically a sea of humanity.. everyone being pushed forward, yet no one actively pushing or pulling.. a general force in the direction of the door that was the entry in to the temple. this force has no logical base, everywhere you see devotees.. some mumbling some prayer under their breath, some bowing thier hands and closing their eyes in gratitude, some shouting out loudly 'GOVINDAAA GOVINDAA', kids screaming, some asking their mom to carry them, and listening to mom trying to convince them that its only a little way remaining.. some devotees coming to ask for something, some already having gotten what they sought returning to offer whatever they could to express gratitude.. a sea.. and we were part of it.. waves passing through us, pushing us... soon we were inside and for a brief period we were able to look at the idol of Balaji.

for that brief moment everything stops...as you try to capture as much as possible in your minds eye.. feasting on the sight..after a long wait..so much twists and turns in the story..and then the moment is gone.. as you are pushed out to make room for the devotees behind you..

you are left in a daze as the experience is behind you and you are again back in open air....

rest of the journey through the temple and the laddoo complex is like an anti climax.. and you go through it in a matter of fact manner.. like something that has to be done..

but once the fresh laddoos come, another journey begins and the smell tantalizes you beyond hope and disappointment, hunger and thirst, sleep and dream, everything fades into oblivion as you savour the delightful sweetness of the prasad of the lord.. it makes you forget all the tiredness.. and you feel that all the effort was worth it... a reward that relieves you of all the stress and takes you to heavenly heights of bliss.. one forgets friend and foe and wants to consume all of the laddoo, but something prevents him and he decides to share his joy with his family and friend after returning to bangalore..

we returned to the cottage and decided to clear off.. shiva was keen on watching ARUNDHATI movie, but since it would take too much time and it will be too late when we return to bangalore giving rise to chances of night driving we decided to opt out of it.. we had to collect the caution deposit, for which we had to get a all clear certificate. the shameless bloke at the counter asked for 10 rs.. we took the all-clear statement to the andhra bank counter at the bus stop, and the guy refunded the caution deposit and in turn demanded 10 rs.. the rot was big.. there was no department left untouched. probably inflation and other macro-economic factors causing them to become corrupt..

a Rang-de-basanti style sridhar decided to write a complaint at the help me counter. and all details of corruption we mentioned and signed against.. addressed to the executive officer ttd. satisfied at doing our bit, we sat in the car and drifted off to sleep..

after getting down, first stop was at a delicious hotel whose waiters seemed to have sensed that the great vada gobblers were on the way. one of them said that there were no vadas. we got puris, dosas, idlis, and a host of chutneys, ginger, tamarind, coconut, and a few others also..

then we started the journey back rather shakily.. almost missing the route and going to chennai or hyderabad... once on the path, it was all smooth... some more pics were taken with the baldy and the shades... the masterpiece of the MORPHEUS CHRONICLE came out on this leg of the journey. this adorns my orkut profile (http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Profile.aspx?rl=mp&uid=15730746938629520064)

as the journey back started, the demands for songs poured in, devD - emotional atyachaar.. which every one sung passionately... gulaal, oye lucky, and one other song that shiva liked which he wanted to set as his ring back tone but could not..

soon the rest drifted off to sleep, and i troubled arvind with ridiculous questions and comments.. my main aim was to ensure that he does not fall asleep driving... and i achieved it successfully, after a good 3 - 4 hours the others woke up as we were working through the complex issues confronting our nation, the corruption at the bureucracy, the inability of a normal person to fight an election with issues that matter to him, the way our life styles were going, the lack of involvement of normal people like us etc..

bangalore was closing in as we stopped at one restaurant for a late lunch at about 4 or so.. the food was bad..indicating that bangalore had indeed come closer.

as we navigated through the traffic and entered the city, it was time for good byes.. a eventful journey was drawing to a end.. and with hopes of another journey to another place which we could enjoy and write about, we parted..

this journey was very special, since it was so unplanned and spontaneous. only our will to forge on ahead and face the odds made the way. it took some effort and sacrifices also, we gave up our comfortable beds early in the mornings for standing in queue for the tickets without even a hope of getting it. mr broken sound boks shiva struggled on with us inspite of having a bad cold.. arvind was a first timer to tirupati and he maintained very calm and composed demeanour inspite of the bad roads wreaking havoc on his car.. vinay and sridhar had to bear the worst of my jokes and philosophical ramblings and had to work very hard against the instinctual pressure to throw me out of the car.. and me... me had to continue living after the striped pink formal full sleeve shirt with the green bermuda combination debacle which created a minor revolution at the security check post and which thankfully does not have any photographic evidence..

the end.