A heavenly trip to the Hills

Truly its been long since I have had a pilgrimage tour ....and over the last weekend I had this heavenly tour to the Tirumala hills. I must have visited this temple when I was in my 4th or the 5th std. and all that I could remember is me with my family standing in some never ending queue getting all tanned in the hot sun. I used to be frightened to visit this temple coz I concluded that whoever visits this temple comes out bald :D

Luck favoured me on June 6th, because I had been planning since November to revisit this holy place and boy-o-boy I'd have never felt so much at peace and a feel-so-good factor after visiting Tirupathi the second time :)

We had booked with some travels here and reached over there early in the morning and stood in queue for the darshan tickets.You see its not like standing in queues for getting a ticket to see a movie,coz the ticket classifications over here was different."Paisa de ...darshan dekh" was the funda....i.e Different queues for different amounts finally leading to see one God.The tickets priced for 200/-,50/- were all sold out(I dunno if there was a higher amount)we stood patiently at the "free darshan ticket" queue.To our surprise we got over it within an hour(probably the weekday visit helped us alot).And then we freshened up at a hotel wherein every family was given approx 1hour to finish bathing/freshening up. After that alotted one hour I jus looked over at my co-travellers and I could bet that none of them except for my family had taken bath...shame shame!! Some were even wearing the same outfits they had worn when they got in from Bangalore....shee!

It was almost 8AM,and all of us were damn hungry so our guide whose name was some Ramalingam Reddy (I think ) took us on a loong drive to some hotel wherein breakfast was served.Breakfast was damn good.....good because atleast I was hungry and I don even remember what the menu items they served :) We finished breakfast within half n hour and were waiting patiently for the other co-passengers to finish too.Many of them had their 4-5yr old naughty kids along , hence drilling food into their tiny mouths took some time :( [One disadvantage of travelling in a group- "wait till the last man is done"].Finally after an hour or so all of us got back to our bus which took us on top of the hill. I guess the journey from the foot to the temple top must have been quite scenic but I had already slept once I got in the bus .

Once we reached the temple top,our guide, whom our many north indian co-passengers had by then renamed him as Raju guide :) (since they found Ramalingam Reddy difficult to remember!) showed us the queue which starts to the temple and gave us some directions and informations regarding what has to be done after we'd return back from the temple.As we stood in the queue,some of the street hawkers tried their best to test our patience to buy their goodies, as they advertised their local cold drinks and food stuffs to eat. Finally when the queue started to move,it looked like we were testing each other's physical strength ,as we too joined in pushing and squeezing ourselves in the crowded queue :) For about 10-15mins the pushing and pulling game continued and finally things looked better when a single line queue began to form :) . As we all walked and ran in the single line queue towards our destination it reminded me of my schooldays where our PT teachers would have asked us to form a single line and get into classes.Amidst all this chaos, I also so many other 200/- ,50/- ,100/- etc queues. I stood and wondered would God classify the wishes of all of us...Would he too grant the wishes depending on the queues we came in from or depending on first-cum-first-served basis :)



Finally our patience and wait for 2hrs became fruitful when we too got the chance of having a glimpse of the heavenly Lord Balaji. The temple inside covered in gold looked very beautiful and the care taken on even the minutest details on the sculptures was commendable. The glimpse for just 4-5sec of the Lord gave in a satisfied feeling to all the devotees who would have thronged for hours together in the long queues.

We finished with our darshan and surprisingly, to come out from the temple amidst the crowd took another hour! Overall things went on fine. Our co-passengers travelled back to Bangalore as we stayed overnight at Tirupati since we planned to make a visit at SriKalahasthi temple the following day!





Since we had finished with tirupati darshan quite soon we decided to make a visit to the Padmavathi Temple(the wife of Lord Venkateshwara)It is believed that a visit to Tirumala is fruitful only after visiting the Sri Padmavathi Devi temple. And here too not again another set of "Free Darshans","10/- Darshans,40/- Darshans,200...500...1000/-s,Quick Darshans!! Mann...if one has to see the Lord and wanna take the simple way then you really gotto have a fat money purse huh! :(





The next day early morning we took a bus to Kalahasthi temple.The journey took hardly an hour.Sri Kalahasthi Temple is considered as the Kailash of the south,and is said to be the site where Kannappa, one of the 63 Saivite Nayanars, was ready to offer his last remaining eye to cover blood flowing from the Siva linga before the Lord Siva stopped him and granted mukti. More info on this temple can be found in this link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalahasti_temple





As usual we werent aware of the procedure to conduct the pujas at this temple.Flowersellers and shopkeepers mislead us and we got inside the temple.To are good luck we found a mallu guide who took us over through the whole procedure of the "Rahu-Kethu Sarpadosham puja" and helped us in visiting the divine idols inside the temple.The temple was beautifullll.Idols from Bhaktha Kanakadasa,Thottanikarra,Kaalla Bhairava,Shani Deva,the devotees of Lord Shiva etc were situated inside the temple.It was indeed a beautiful visual to see :) Not to forget here too were the 250/- , 1000/ etc darshans stressed upon :)


And thus ended our two day pilgrimage tour as we took a bus towards Bangalore and reached home within 4-5hours drive .....had a good sound sleep :)....not to forget carrying all good memories and wonderful experiences and ofcourse the thought of relishing the yummmmyy laddooos stored in to eat the next day :)

Hilarious to the core....;)

I used to receive forwards mentioning funning matrimonial profiles.... and would have a hearty laugh and then wonder whether these people really exist who write in such amazing hilarious stuffs in their matrimonial websites.
Finally I too got the chance to witness the most funniest profiles written by people when I had to look out for a match for my brother through online sites. Sharing a few of them which I had personally saved to post below .... Lets make it like some contest?? Rate your favorites and let me know the reason :)......enzoii maadiii :)

• one sister - I am her only elder sister,a master degree holder ,working in a reputed company as HR officer in Ankleshwar.My marriage is already fixed in jan 08.
• Mine is a nuclear family of 4 (which includes my parents & a sis), oozing with unconditional love & moral support.Though inordinately conversant with Written Communication ; I am realizing that when it has come to describing myself ( so that others may have a brief glimpse of the person I am ), hey , there my vocabulary exhausts...!! I am a down to earth , jovial, understanding and caring girl. I like my simplicity & honesty. Of Life , I opine that its all about the gap between what u want & what u get , & more importantly, HOW u adjust to that gap...
• I feel im a loving person, and i prefer a loving person, i like to stay in kerala, preferably tvm,but im not very adamant abt it...
• she is young beautiful minded lady with full of love. she is can caring her family like a hevan. she enjoys music ,movies&reading. LOVELY FAMILY IT IS A HAPPY FAMILY Looking for: MUST BE A LOVELY PERSON
• Wait for updates...I come from a very traditional background. My parents are very conservative and I would like a guy who values traditions and customs. I am very artistic and when I am not working, I spend my time drawing and painting. I love dogs and I know how to train them and take care of them. Looking for someone with similar tastes.
• Hi, I'm a highly ambitious person with loads of with +ve attitude. I am hard working, but not impatient. People also say I am broad-minded, which I think means, being liberal in thinking. I am a go-getter, and compromise is one thing, not for me
• About me :-
  MY LIFE PARTNER IS BEAUTIFULAND EXCELLENTAND SOFT
  I will be a nice wife to my husband. I'll be a nice and wise mother to my children. I'll be a nice daughter-in-law to my in-laws and I'll be a nice friend to other kith and kin.
  I believe " many details can be seen only when you see the person, i like person who love human beings and must be a good human being too."
• Hello everyone I am Rashmi.I am an MBA graduate. In my family there is my father who iz a business man ,Mother also helping dad in business and then comes my younger brother who is doing bsc Printing technology and then myself.I like to have a mate who will be loving a persons character and not physical appearence.A person with whom i can share eveything.a person who guide me in every path of my life.A person with whom i can fight, Play ...............
• Ours is a nuclear family...Consisting of my parents,myself, and my sweet little sis..My Father is one retired military officer..He got retired in 2000.And now also he is working for one govt organization..He is a very active person.And also kind hearted..My friends and relatives always say that we are lucky enough to get him as our father..And i too think so...He is one role model in my life..My mother is a house wife...She is very beautiful ( one small aishwarya rai..hehe ) ...She is very funny person.She cooks very well..We can talk anything under the sky with her....She is just like my best friend...I share all my secrets with her.Even I like to have some silly fights with her ( not any serious fight ) ...Even she too do the same with me...Then comes my sis...She is very cute n bubbly...She is doing her bachelors in Micro biology...Even though she is 2.5 yrs younger to me,she acts like my elder sister...When we both r together,our cousins will say that ki BBC and CNN have started broadcasting.
• i am fair . i want a IT professional. he must be handsome and fair like me. he has no bad behaviors

Got tagged....!

DCM had tagged me pretty loong time ago and had requested and even sent a mail that we should post .......So I dedicate this blog to DCM :) ....... So here it goes..

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER
Kadhaparayumbol - I saw this mal movie only because I heard that this movie would be remade in Hindi,Tamil,etc etc languages so was just curious enough to watch it;but overall I would rate this movie as a simple nice family movie :)

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING
Books is the last thing on earth I would read ;) ..... I generally sleep off after the first 2 pages so I rarely read books :)

3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?
Chess

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?
Any magazine which has a colorful cover page,I would love to read it

5. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Indeed the smell of wet mud when it rains ; petrol smell too ;)

6. FAVORITE SOUND?
Wind chimes and sound of Church Bells in some quiet place

7 WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
Feeling of helplessness

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?
what to cook for breakfast :)

9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?
Adigas and Ajantas as of now :)

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?
Havent thought abt it but I adore these names -Vedant,Vedika,Pratham,Mithali,Smrithi,Shlok..

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D...?
think how to invest :)

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST?
No...I dont know how to drive but I can drive people mad faster :)

13.DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
I dont think in any angle Vivek looks like a stuffed animal to me :D

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?
Cool cool :)

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
GetZ

16. FAVORITE DRINK?
Anyday lime water !

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD ......
Join some dance class ;)

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
Nope

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
Burgundy

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.
I have lived and re-lived in my fav city Bangalore :)

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Looks like its alwaays cricket season here

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.
Creative

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?
a suitcase ;)....dont be curious......it has some junk files in it :)

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?
If there are no other good choices I wouldnt mind being re-born as myself again :)

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL?
Night Owl

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Sunny Side up!

27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?
Guess its my room @ Mom's place

28. FAVORITE PIE?
Apple Pie. Haven't tasted anything else.

29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?
Anything in chocolate

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
None :) he he he ! I just took a break writing this ;)

Jab Andar-ke-Atmaa bolne lagthii hai.....!!!!

Ha Ha...I could sense a shiver run down your spine ;)....No! no!... not to worry!...am not speaking about ghosts or souls here. My post is a small silly gesture from my side regarding my reactions to certain silly circumstances.I call it "silly" because it can sound "silly" to the person reading it but these were few of MY favorite little things I love to do when I am with myself :)

1.) On a rainy day, I would see many small puddles of mud on the road,the lazy girl in me would find it difficult to divert my route just by one step towards left/right and then I would step back and take a BIG leap forward and cross the puddle.I would look around ,give a pat on my shoulders and say - " Yessssss!!! :) "

2.) If I happen to spot a handsome cool looking dude...I would give a 5 sec stare @ him and look elsewhere and say to myself -"How can u be so cool-looking man..!! " ;)) BUT NOW I am married haan......Dunno y I dont find any guy so cool looking :(... ofcourse apart from ..cough cough...(u know na)... ;) but when I happen to spot a good looking couple , I do the same and say to myself..."Cho cuteee...nazar na lag jaaye "

3.) Let me narrate another small silly incident which I did for the first time which gave my "andar-ke-atma" a nice feeling.My mom had taught me to cook so many relishing delicacies and I had noted it down sincerely in a small notebook,infact after marriage like how normal newly-wed brides would attack the kitchen,I started my open-book exam.The ingredients were added into the hot pan in the same order in which they were written in my book :) So the foolish girl inside me had a strange thought one day -" What if l add capsicum first and then onions and then mustard seeds,what if the order gets changed?Anyways all will be going into the same hot pan right ;) " And then I felt pride in doing something different and I changed the order here and there while adding the ingredients......The final result - Food tasted absolutely the same like how it were before!! And I sensed a different feeling within which said "Anu,tussi great ho..kya baat hai...mahaan ho baii! ;) "

4.) While passing by inside office I would have noticed some guy/gal doing some goof-up or giving a weirdo facial expression while staring @ their PC and I would have been amused noticing that...and when they turn around and give the-innocent-look like "Did u see me do that?" kind of expression,I would look at their immediate neighbour and walk away as if I am blind for that moment.And then I would giggle by myself and say within - "Caught yaa doing that ..he he he ;) "

5.) While zooming in my Getzy...yeah ofcourse chauffeur-driven by hubby dearest ...and somehow we are able to miss the red traffic signals all along the way (it happens rarely in Bangalore city roads especially) and then when we are just close to the destination place and lo the BRIGHT RED signal comes with an LED indicator displayed next to it which reads "120" and goes ticking down,I give a not-so-happy facial expression and my heart says..."Shuckss....just missed man!! :( "

I could write down more of such incidents and enumerate more cases but I rather not bore you all ;) I am sure each of us will have something like this to narrate about,maybe you yourself wouldnt have noticed that you do this with you :D....I say give some time for yourself....talk to yourself and do some silly things with urself to make u feel good...Doing all this gives me that small pleasure to my heart....atleast it brings in a volunteered 5 sec smile on my face....makes me feel good :) ..... But just incase someone notices Anu do all these silly things then my face potrays the expression -

"Tussi gadbad kiii na ab Anu :( "

Oasis to Mirage!!

I received the following excerpt from my colleague who had forwarded this to me this morning!And then I felt that these were the exact thoughts which would have come straight from any working professional's heart :)..I truly appreciate the person who has penned down this.....Happy Reading!

I would like to express my transition from real freedom to assumed freedom. I am here talking about my transition from my college to the booming IT industry. I would like to pour my one year experience of the so called glamorous and fun filled IT industry.

We used to wander those spacious heat filled open grounds and dirty class rooms with just 50Rs. in pocket and plan the whole week with that budget. But now we wander along the well cleaned, fully air-conditioned corridors with about five to six credit cards in our pocket planning where to swipe the cards. Credit cards eagerly waiting to eat next month's salary. I can't believe that it was just one year before that the 50Rs. seemed to be lacks now, lacks seems to be nothing.

College canteen, Tea shops were the favorite hot spots where we spent hours together, having a hearty chat with our buddies forgetting the whole world. But now Cafe Day, Quickies, Baristas have taken those places. What a coffee cost 2.5Rs last year has now gone up to 50Rs a cup.

Those precious days where we used to laugh for nothing, while chatting or while playing or even when you fail in your paper because you have got 30 marks for a empty paper. But now you rarely smile except the smile for the forward you just received or the smile to your PM to impress him.

Hate ness and Ego were the words you haven't heard in those days. You smash or hit your friend for some reason and the next moment you walk along him with hands on his shoulders. But now you doesn't like the guy sitting beside you because he's getting a salary 10k greater than you or he's always being appreciated by your PM. True friends are hard to find here.

In college if some one is talking badly about your college you can find your blood boiling inside even though you don't like your principal.But here loyalty is the lost word, whenever someone is talking badly about your company you join them to criticize your company. You join the company with the resignation day in the mind, is this loyalty. Don't mind I have also planned my resignation date.

You have seen the late nights only on the eve of the exam, where you rely on your friend to wake him/ her at night 1 or 2. And how can we forget those last minute tensions in exam, you remember that only just before entering the exam you find that you have forgotten to revise a important question that your friend suggested that it will surely appear on this exam. You rush back and flip those Xeroxed pages with tension. But today you work at least 2 days a week till 1 or 2 in the night to deliver something to your unknown client who is at US or UK. You are aimlessly typing at the useless word document that your PM asked you to finish with his tailor made smile. Loads of tension with calls from home, with your eye lids eager to kiss each other and you promise them to allow it a little later, cursing Bill Gates for inventing MSWord.

It seems I have been in my own desert where I have realized that I am moving from the warmth ness of the Oasis to chase a mirage. A mirage that promises a lot of thing, but still its just a mirage. When I turn back I can find thousands chasing that mirage with a ID card around their neck. I wish all the best for them!