Yelukundalavada Tirupathi devasthanam welcomes me……

It was one of the religious centres of the country. Located in the south of India in Andhra Pradesh. My day to visit it from Chennai with my family started.
16th June, 2006:
Morning…
4:30 – alarm rang bells in my ears….
4:40 – mom shouting at me and my bro to get up, or else we might miss the bus…
4:43 – I got up; my bro is still sleeping…
4:50 – I rush out of my room dressed for the journey in a traditional silk chudithar…
5:00 – every one at home is almost ready… doing last minute chores at home.
5:15 – ready to lock the house, checking all the locks in each room, seeing if everything is properly done.
5:20 – leave house to catch auto, to go to the tamilnadu tourism office, where our bus is going to come.
5:45 – reach the office after a bit of searching. It was our first experience with the Tamilnadu tourism board.
6:00 – our bus arrives; it is a mini van with 15 seats.
6:10 – we board the bus; I take the window seat as it is my custom!
6:30 – the bus moves at last… we start our journey.
8:40 – we stop for breakfast at thiruthani, not a bad breakfast… and it was supposed to me limited breakfast with 2 idlis, 1cup of pongal, 1 vada, and sambar and chutney. But the restaurant guy wished to give me a second helping of pongal, I never asked for it. And I myself was trying hard to finish my plate. Lol. Anyway I refused; he tried to persuade me, but then left.
9:00 – we boarded again and resumed our journey; I can’t much account what happened in the next two hours, because I was sound asleep…
11:15 – we reached lower tirupathi; from there we had to change our bus with the local Andhra Pradesh devasthanam bus. The bus wasn’t worth noticing. All that I knew was it wasn’t comfortable one and a very rickety one, in this bus we were going to climb the hill.
12:25 – we reached upper tirupathi, the journey up was quite tiresome, with all those hairpin bends, but the climate was great…
12:30 – our guide made us leave our entire luggage in the cottage and we started walking to the temple. The climate was in such a state that we guessed it was going to rain.
Yeah, it had to rain; I had finally come after some years to this place!
12:45 – we were moving in the long queue for our 100 rupee ticket… inside the temple. Outside, as I said it was raining nicely, it was a lovely sight to see, with the fresh smell of the earth arising by the rain…
1:45 – I guess that was the time we reached the main entrance. Till now the crowd was tolerable. I was beginning to believe that it is not going to be so crowded, and I will have an easy darshan with lord Venkatachalapathi. But how will that happen, once we entered the main entrance, all other people from other queues also joined us, and it was a big queue. No that would be wrong, it wasn’t a big queue, and it was a BIG crowd. I never had to move, they just pushed me in, and I went along with the crowd.
2:00 – still pushing among the crowd. My brother got separated from us, lucky fellow, he went inside and got darshan and came out. We were just trying to get in, when he waved us from outside. My mom called him to come in again. He jumped through the barriers and joined us again. Finally I met lord Venkatachalapathi. Lol. For like 2 seconds. All the security was inside pushing us out. There was no one outside to manage the crowd.
2:15 – we finally made it to the hundi, and gave our offerings. But now we were stuck inside the main entrance, we couldn’t go out. The stupid security was letting everyone in and no one out for a certain period. How dumb can that be? As usual, we pushed through the crowd with great difficulty and managed to get out. Once outside, another security was pushing us out. Hmmm…. Indeed great organization. Even the lord can’t question them, because even the lord will be handcuffed if enough money is not collected in the hundi. I couldn’t believe it when my mom said this. With so much pride to the place, must not they have a proper administration?
2:30 – we finally reached out after getting prasad, we went to some temple nearby, and was going to the cottage. I was dead by that time. My legs were begging me to rest!! But we had to reach the cottage at 3:00 as our guide said, so that then we can go down hill and have lunch.
3:03 – we made it to the cottage, our guide asked us to once again board the local bus down. But we were not moving, why? One north Indian family who came with us were missing, no not entirely, the men were there, their wives were missing, Lol, and our guide was trying to trace them. And also all the cell phones were with the guide, so the ladies in that family did not have cell phones, so no way to contact them, but to search..
3:45 – finally, found them. The bus started. It went pretty fast then the one in which we came up hill…
4:30 – we reached downhill, and had lunch. It too wasn’t bad.
5:00 – we were going to this other temple, which is the temple of the mother of lord Venkatachalapathi. It was a nice one; we went in the quick darshan. It was all good and nice, but here too, you could get to see the goddess for just a maximum of 2 seconds.
5:45 – we were out of the temple, and boarded our bus.
6:00 – we started back to Chennai.
I did not sleep much, but then too I can’t say much about the journey back, as it was all very dark outside.
7:45 – we reached the same restaurant, where we had breakfast in the morning. No one was very hungry, so we had a light dinner. The restaurant had a T.V. and we asked him to change the channel to Espn, to watch the world cup football match. We were the only one to ask for it. You know my brother can’t miss the opportunity to see the match. But, one thing I regretted was that the restaurant T.V. got all the channels, there was no CAS system there. Why should chennaities alone suffer?
8:10 – we boarded the bus again.
10:15 – reached Chennai –guindy, back to home sweet home.
10:30 – reached home finally, I then had to sleep, and I had a class at 6:15 the next morning.
Overall a nice journey, perfectly after my college reopened. The irony was all through my holidays I was at home; once college starts I go out of station.
Lol
Zany child as always…

Generation gap

“Venky, get up everyone’s coming home” he heard his mom’s voice waking him up in the morning. He tried his best to pull the covers back to his head, but alas, his mom was quicker. She pulled the covers from him, and made him get up. He got up yawning and grunting, while his mom pushed him to the bathroom and said “get ready soon; they will be here any minute”.

Restlessly Venky a.k.a Venkataraman got ready and came out to the hall hearing noises there. When he entered a two year old ran up to him and shouted “Venky Anna”. While his aunt came up to him and cried “oh, look at Venkata, evalo perusa valrnthutaan (how big he has grown), I still think he will be a small child, how silly of me” and patted his back, while the two year old clung to him. His aunt looked at him pointing to the child said “you indeed remember juju don’t you, Aarti’s precious daughter, you must’ve seen her as a baby”. While his aunt’s daughter Aarti came around and said a ‘hi’ to him and carried away her daughter. While her aunt was still nagging him saying “doesn’t juju look cute…. She is a beautiful child….” While Venky just muttered to himself ‘juju, nice name indeed for a child like a name one keeps to ones’ pet’.

He saw his grandma approaching, he went and touched her feet like a nice little grandson and said “how are you Patti (grand mom)”. While his grand mom pinched his cheek real hard and said “Venkataraman aa ithu, (is this Venkataraman), hmmm…” and analyses him from head to toe and says “konjam satha podanum, vayasu paiyan ippudiya olliya irrupan, paru killa kooda mudiyalai (he has to put on weight, is this how a teenage boy be thin, see I can’t even pinch him)”. Venky just responds as “Venkataraman illa Patti Venky (it’s not Venkataraman it is Venky)” and just stands there at his place and is thinking how thin he is, indeed he had an athletic body, he did not find him thin, but according to his grand mom he guessed she will accept him as healthy if he is fat as a teddy bear!

He then said he had to get ready for college and left the place and went to his room, only to find it in a big mess. His whole room was upside down, the two twins (Aarti’s first twin sons) were now repairing his guitar. He fled to them and pulled the guitar away from them. Twin no.1 demanded “Venky Anna. Give it back”, twin no. 2 said “we are trying to fix back the wire that came out”. He looked at his guitar in horror, not a wire, many wires were dangling down. He shooed them away from the room and drooped on his bed with his hands on his heads. His mom entered and asked him to adjust to the people in his house, and even more alarmed him by saying that he had to share his rooms with the twins. If he couldn’t get along with this, his mom further made him frustrated by saying that, “Venky come home on time for this one week, no hanging out with your friends late in the evening, ok, please Patti (grand mom) will not like it if you come home late”. He kicked the floor and went to get ready.

He had put on an open shirt with a t-shirt inside, seeing him his grand mom came and buttoned the shirt up to his neck making him choke and in the process advising of proper clothes that should be worn to college, and she put some ash on his fore head, saying he must believe in god. He almost spoke back while he caught his mom’s pleading look, he just left. Once outside he unbuttoned his shirt and sped away on his bike. On reaching college, his best friend Varun joked at him “What Venky, looking all religious man”. Venky just grunted and said, about his relatives at home, Varun said “man, that’s going to suck having them for a whole week, and so are you not coming to Kitu’s party, she will kill you if you are not there, she will fret for a whole week saying what a useless boyfriend she has got, who can’t even attend her party.” Venky said “well it won’t become as worse, that then, she would have to dump me, oh my god, I promised her I will take her to a movie today (groan) and did I tell you that life sucks”.

“How could you do this to me Venky, I’ve been waiting to watch this movie, and you just say ‘sorry I can’t make it today’, now… now…. I don’t need any explanations. Don’t tell me you can’t make it today because of your relatives, such a lame excuse, you hoped I will fall for it, never…. Just go Venky, I am so disappointed” Kitu stormed out of the room. Venky just looked back at her helplessly, and said to himself ‘just for a movie she is mad, what will happen if I tell her I can’t make it to the party too…’ while Varun came in and said “probably, she’ll kick your ass man”.
When he reached home, the air was filled with a delicious aroma; his grand mom was making sweets. When he went in, his grand mom came to him and stuffed his mouth with a big piece of ‘mysore pak’ telling him she made it for him. She even joked “china vayasula nee, thirututhanama Mysore pakka eduthu sapiduva, ithuku unnoda thatha odantha (when you were small you used to steal this Mysore pak and eat it, your grandpa was a part of the crime)”. Venky just said “athu china vayasula Patti (that was when I was small grand mom), now I don’t like it much” and went to his room.
His whole room was a mess, he couldn’t say anything, and the twins were messily sleeping in his bed, he just went and sat in his chair and was messaging Kitu, pacifying her, and using all techniques to woo her, while suddenly he jumped at the voice of his aunt, she came into the room and was asking him to take his coffee on the table. Seeing him engrossed in the cell phone, said that “ennada (what da) all the time you are doing something with that phone of yours…. Hmmm… I can not understand this generation kids, my time wasn’t like this…” and left the room.

He rushed to college the next day; Kitu was in such a bad mood, when she heard that Venky was not coming to her party tomorrow. She wasn’t convinced with his excuses. She did not talk the whole day, however hard Venky tried. At last he gave up, and sat dejectedly during lunch. Varun was goofing around as usual in the canteen area, trying to woo the first yr girls. Then noticing Venky slumped in the chair, he went up to him and hit his back jovially, telling him problems came and went. And Kitu was just in one of her bad boyfriend phases, she will get over it. Then, Venky made up his mind, no matter what he is going to make it to Kitu’s party tomorrow. He did not care of his aunt or his grand mom or the messy twins.

he went home determined. He told everyone at home that he will be late tomorrow; he did not care if they had a puja at home. He needed to go to his friend’s party. Even his mothers pleadings that he has to be there tomorrow, as his father has gone out of station and the puja needs a male member of the family fell on deaf ears. He wasn’t willing to change his mind. His grand mom said something about how children now-a-days are becoming very irresponsible and careless and said she completely disapproved the behavior of Venky. Venky just shot back saying, he did not care what she said.

The party was a total blast the next evening. Venky was having all the fun he could. When he was dancing with Kitu, his cell phone vibrated… he saw the display and cut the phone. When Kitu asked him who it was, he just replied ‘home’ and went back dancing. After a few minutes the phone vibrated again. He got so frustrated that he gave the phone to Varun and asked him to tell he went somewhere. Then again after a few minutes, the phone which was now in Varun’s hand vibrated again. Varun said maybe he should take the call. Kitu agreed with him, she said it may be urgent.

Venky grunted and took the phone. He heard his mother’s voice all panicky. She was almost crying over the phone. She asked him immediately to come home, saying between sobs that the screens in the hall caught fire. They were doing this puja and the twins were messing around with the match box, no one knew it and they had accidentally set the screens on fire. She did not say more, she was sobbing hard. Venky panicked, and transferred the message to his friends. The all rushed to his home, he was all sweaty when he reached there. An ambulance had come. He rushed inside; his mom came and hugged him. “Oh Venky…look what happened. Juju got injured…..what we will do”. His aunt was crying badly in one corner. He heard that his grand mom has collapsed. He felt terrible. He felt guilty for what happened. They rushed to the hospital, and miraculously juju recovered, and his grand mom was alright. His friends consoled him; still he did not feel good.

He went to his grand mom’s room the next night and asked her to forgive him. He blamed himself for whatever that happened. He said he mustn’t have gone to that party. He must have remained home. He then broke off. He was crying like a child. He said he couldn’t have bared it if anything had happened to her. Hearing his cries, his mom and aunt came to the room. They tried to console him it wasn’t his fault that it happened. They must have understood his needs that he needs to spend time with his friends too. It was there fault that they had been careless enough to let the kids play with the match box.

His grand mom just smiled and said “onnoda thappu illa Venky, anna onna mattum therinchuko, nee evalo importance unnoda friendsuuku kudukuriyo, athula pathiyavathu unnoda vetiku kudu, naanum unnoda vayasa thandi thaan vanthiruken. Ennaku theriyum ippo unaku ellame friends thaan, nanga ethu sonnalum onnaku thappa than theriyum, aaparum purinchikuva, ippo poi paduthuko (its not your fault Venky, but know one thing, how much importance you give to your friends give at least half of it to your family, even I was your age once. I know now for you everything is your friends, what ever we say you will find it to be wrong, you will realize it later, now go and sleep)”

He looked at her through watery eyes and went to bed, making a resolution that he will never hurt his family again, by his senseless behavior.

My Mr. Brain is rusted with the help of nerve ‘A’

I’ve recently been thinking about a topic to blog about. Well no hope in that area, I guess it is a tough area to think about. You may think what is tough for a blogger to think about a topic to blog for. Well, I am in loss of topics; I could not find a suitable topic, so finally I decided I will blog about my search for topics in my brain.
I know this is a totally boring topic, but guess you people out there can humor me by reading it….
Read on...
This is how it went…

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“Knock knock”-the door was tapped in the headquarters of my body, the brain.
“Come in” motioned Mr. Brain.
It was one of the nerves of my nervous system (I read once in my biology book,( as long as I took biology that is till class 10) that the nerves take messages from all through your body to the brain). The nerve entered; let us name the nerve ‘A’. Ok.
Nerve ‘A’ said “sir, she is bored” (that is me for the uninitiated). Mr. Brain yawned and said “she has no other job other than getting bored. Ok, let’s see what we can do to our best to fight the boredom” (yawn).
Nerve ‘A’ “yes sir”.
Departs, Comes after some time and says “let us search for a topic to blog about”.
Mr. Brain responds “ok, search process starts”.
“…………..Searching all files…..
No files found…..
Waste of time…..
Wait….
How about current affairs? She has not written much about current affairs. Hmm…how about ‘TamilNadu-the state you live in’. Not a bad idea. She can write about how the state has been in the past months, like… the election comedy…where the two parties campaign was a full time hilarious comedy, roping in cine actors, color TVs and computers, rice at rupees 2, supporting of quota system, to the recent suspension on ‘Da Vinci code’ screening in the state when the entire country gets to watch it, even the world sees it.
But wait…
She can’t write current affairs…”
Nerve ‘A’ interrupts “But, why sir”
Mr. Brain glares at him and says “Can’t u see I am working, well because she will mess the topic big time! She seldom watches the news, and she has no facts to prove her writing, and what is current affair writing without a pinch of facts and statistical data”
The brain thinks and searches again…
“………still searching…………..
No hope….
Hmm…..
She can write what she is best at….
Stories…
But no she can’t write that….”
Nerve ‘A’, looks up again and open his mouth to question.
Mr. Brain signals him to keep quiet and says “she always writes mills and boon kinds of stories, I am sick of it. And mostly she never lets the lovers to unite. She separates them miserably, except for that one story ‘mistaken identity’ (this is there in the blog) where I convinced her to unite them, and I am still scared what will happen to ‘dreamz’ (also in blog). Well I know she is planning to write the film ‘alaipayuthey’ in her own version, but that can wait for now. I can no longer bear her stories. Do give me a break….
So that topic is dropped”
Nerve ‘A’ grunts and goes to work.
“………searching continues……….
Nothing visible yet….
May be she should write a poem…
The one she wrote ‘show me the meaning’ (in the blog) wasn’t all that bad.
But…”
Nerve ‘A’ looks up with a not again look...
“You know a poem needs a lot of work...
You’ve got to get the words right and the rhyming right, or at least she should insert some similes and metaphors. For that she has to think. And I know she is not ready to do it. She is indeed the laziest person in earth, thanks to me….
So even that topic is dropped...
Hmm….
Maybe she should write about her….
Her way of leading life...
But...”
Nerve ‘A’ is no longer surprised.
“Well, who would want to read about her? The most boring, dull, zany child in this earth. A person who is so sensitive, to whom crying comes as naturally as eating!!! She has written enough about her in her blog ‘discovering myself’ (in the blog too)…
Maybe something else….
How about her friends…
Well she can part them in two as her school friends and college friends and maybe she could compare and see, with whom she is most compatible with.
That seems like a good idea…
But…”
Nerve ‘A’ is no where to be found…
Mr. Brain searches for him and finds him hiding under one of the cells, he pulls him out and holding him says “you have to be there when I search, you cannot let me alone suffer her boredom, and I know we all are doomed for life inside her….
Now where was I…?
Yes… indeed, her friends…
She cannot write about them because she knows her school friends for almost 5 years while she knows her college friends for well, a year maybe. And each friend of her is a separate fish in the pond. Impossible to compare them….
Maybe she should write about ‘How she loves planet earth’….
Or….
‘How jobless she is?’
Or…
‘How terribly she is wasting her holidays’
Or…
‘How often she uses the ‘lol’ word’
But…
I think she won’t make a good job of it”
Nerve ‘A’ is about to collapse, but steadies himself.
Suddenly a green light blinks in Mr. Brain’s mind ‘beep beep beep’
“Got it… just the topic for her…
But not a very interesting topic…
Oh my god…
She made me too boring as her…
Then how else will I think of such a boring topic…
…..”
Nerve ‘A’ is frustrated and yells “will you please spill the beans on the topic chosen, I can no longer bear the suspense, but please don’t say the ‘but’ word again… I beg…please let her write in whatever boring topic you have chosen, I do not care if she made us boring, but right now I need to blow off my steam, so just say the topic and I will deliver it to her, and get away with it”
Mr. Brain says “ok, ok even I am thinking of blowing off steam after this jobless job of searching…. Nerve ‘A’ want to know the topic, well it is nothing but our entire searching process and our conversation….
What do you think…?
Anyway I do not care a bit of what you think, you just carry my orders I hate to take suggestions from others, well go deliver the message to that boring zany child”
Nerve ‘A’ happily is about to go to deliver the message, even though he thinks this is the most boring topic in the world, while he is stopped by a “But nerve ‘A’…” by Mr. Brain.
Nerve ‘A’ collapses on the place.
Mr. Brain comes to him and gets him on the feet and says “I just wanted to say that do we have to give that topic, it is really boring, maybe she should stop blogging for a certain period and go and read ‘the fountain head’ which she has been trying to complete for the past 2 weeks, well but if you feel she should blog, go deliver the message, you are so put out with the whole process, maybe you should deliver it and go on a holiday, I grant you full permission…..”
Nerve ‘A’ rushes off before he hears the ‘but’ word from Mr. Brain.
While Mr. Brain is muttering under his breath
“Maybe I gave the wrong directions…
Maybe she should read ‘the fountain head’ and stop blogging for certain while…
Maybe I made a mistake…
This would have been the most boring blog….”

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But those words indeed fell on deaf ears, as here you see the blog written. And maybe it is the most boring blog, but hey, I wanted to blog something desperately, kindly bear with my crap.

Note: sorry all biology students, I used the little biology I knew.
Maybe my Mr. Brain will come up with a better topic next time,
Currently it is searching for a suitable topic for this blog…
Bingo…
It found the topic…
And you find it in my headline.
Lol
Zany child as always…

SHOW ME THE MEANING

The sun blazed in the sky

The streets were empty

No birds sang in the sky

The trees had stopped swaying

You showed the meaning

Of feeling lonely……

Telling me it was what

I have been living all these years

You showed me the meaning

Of feeling in love…...

Now

The sun smiled at me

The streets were filled with laughing people

The birds sang day and night in the sky

the trees nodded to me

Every time I saw them

You showed me the meaning

Of being wanted….

You showed me the meaning

Of living life……

You showed me the meaning

Of happiness……

You showed me the meaning

Of my existence……

You told me the answers

to all the questions in my life…….

You showed me that

I could bring joy to people…..

You showed me the meaning

Of a fruitful life…….

but….

Why did …

You show me the meaning

Of falling apart…..

You showed me how it felt

To have a broken heart……

I was ‘no one’ before you came

You made me ‘some one’ after you came

But

Was it all to make me return back to ‘no one’

Do answer me

no longer

The sun smiles at me….

No longer

The people in the street laugh….

No longer

The birds sing in the sky….

No longer

The trees sway….

Not through my life

Will I forget?

What feeling lonely

Means…

You taught me a lot of meanings in life

And that was the best one……….