Tirumala

Time: May 15-16, 2013

Place: Tirumala

Company: Wife, daughter, parents, MIL

Highlights: 

Prologue:  The day we landed in India, we went to a TTD office in Jayanagar for fingerprinting and booking Rs 50 tickets. Since we were 5 adults + 1 toddler, I was not keen on taking our Alto. Other alternatives were to hire a taxi with a driver or rent a car (US-style) or take train/bus till tirupati and hire taxi there. Weirdo that I am, I pursued the option of US-style taxi. Not that I like driving so much that I want to rent cars to drive in frenzied traffic conditions in India, let alone Bangalore! Only reason was to save a few bucks (in hindsight - amounting up to only 40 USD!). In this regard, found zoomcar.in. What they had to offer seemed nice and straightforward. The US ‘rent-a-car’ verbiage is ‘self-drive’ rented cars. Because Indian ‘rent-a-car’ is nothing but renting a taxi with a driver. Saw zoomcar website, made few calls and booked an almost new Scorpio (under 1000 kms) for the trip. This was the biggest car I had ever driven in the narrow and traffic-infested roads of Bangalore. Definitely not worth the risk.

Day 1: Zoomcar car pickup was located only in one place in Bangalore – near Brigade Gateway in Malleshwaram (now they have expanded). So at 10 am drove my two wheeler all the way from Jayanagar to pick up location (after having lost directions twice completely, even venturing into Orion mall (wow, btw)), dropped it there and boarded the Scorpio. Trip from Malleshwaram to Jayanagar in this immense car was nerve-racking, to say the least. My drive in the two-wheeler on the previous day on Nrupathunga road was a shocker, so I used an alternate road. Finally reached Jayanagar at 12 pm. Had a bite of lunch and started the journey at 1 pm.

Journey was uneventful. Road is beautiful until Mulbagal and has a median in-between. For the first time in my life, I touched 140 kmph. Had a small stop-over near a local farm for more packed lunch under a tree.  Continued onwards to Andhra Pradesh. Had a small issue at the border because the system was not taking my DL since it is not a commercial license. But the officer was able to get a way through it. Rest of the journey was uneventful, except that by the time we climbed the mountain, it was already nightfall. So tontu could not see the climb. Reached Karnataka Guest House at about 8 pm, had a quick bite of dinner and retired in the sweltering heat.

Day 2: Got up at 6 am, and headed out to Swami Pushkarni for a bath. Tontu’s first outside bath, and she enjoyed it. So much that she didn’t want to get out of it. But there were some tantrums on silly topics. Nevertheless, we headed to the Rs 50 queue at 8 am. This was the first time for Tontu and I was fervently wishing it to be quick and smooth, like so many of the previous trips. Unfortunately, this was the longest I had ever seen. Even the Rs 300 queue was long. After a certain point, the queue just stopped moving and we all sat down on available seats. Then it moved again and stopped, this time there were no seats. So we were stuck there, standing in the middle of 100 other sweaty people with no idea when it will move again. Tontu is getting sleepy but still no tantrums in the queue. Then all of a sudden, the queue moves and it moves so fast that within 5 mins, we are inside the santum sanctorum. And for the first time in my life, there is no rushing and pulling and pushing inside the sanctum sanctorum. It is a simple queue that is moving just like any other temple in India! We get a glimpse of Lord Venkateshwara and too soon, we are out of it!

By the time we came out of the temple it was noon. We rushed to Udupi Mutt (who were gracious) for a quick lunch (elders had fasted since morning for the darshan) and started off to Bangalore at 2.30 pm. For most part it was uneventful except for once when I tried to overtake from left and almost risked it all. Very soon, we had reached Mulbagal Mutt. Got blessings from Sripadharaja Swamy, and once more headed towards Bangalore. Reached Bangalore by 7.30 but took almost 1.5 hrs to reach Jayanagar home. Returned the car next day to zoomcar HQ.

Epilogue: This trip marked a first of many. Self-drive car. Top-speed. First TTD trip (queue, darshan, Tirumala climb, outside bath, etc.) for Tontu. And first trip for Tontu without a single snap being taken! Thankfully, by Lord Balaji’s grace, nothing happened to the new car – no scratch, no dent or anything. By the time I came back, I was quite confortable driving it in Bangalore!