Hey YOU..DoN't B1OcK the BlOgGerZ

Finally my planning to India become reality. After careful planning and running ups and down we landed safely at Anna Salai Airport. My main intention to India is to visit Tirupathi. I have been to Tirupathi back in 2003 and received a blissful Darshan. So this is how it goes :-

First day 1st August

Anna Salai airport has changed alot from Book Register to computerised updates, from fan to Air-cond, Concrite wall to tiles and from dirt to clean !! Wow good.

We took a hotel car pickup to Bhimaas Hotel @ Vadapalani, it is actually beside Vadapalani Murugan Temple. The agreed Car pick up was Rs350 but we ended up paying Rs910 (daylight robbery) just because a Sumo car was send instead of the Ambassador (the white car that we saw in tamil movies). I couldn’t accept the explaination , we just had no choice but to agree quietly. The complimentary breakfast was tasty especially the Pudina chutney. The standard breakfast that we was having for the past one week was :-

1. Idly & Vada accompanied with 3 chutneys + Sambar and small cup of coffe which will finish in a single gulp.

2. You can choose either Dosa, Pongal, Poori or Idiappam. Mostly I will just choose Dosa. My mom said the poori was tasty as well.

Once we stepped out from Bhimaa’s hotel just a stone throw there is a small Amman temple. Being Aadi month supposedly to be auspicious for Amman temples , I saw few women in trance just outside the temple and boiling milk and coole for Amman. It is a Palayutha amman temple.

After that we attacked the TV with all kinda of Tamil programes - Teja ( Telungu) , Kiran (Hindi), Sun TV , Jaya TV , Gemini (Malayalam programme) & Raj TV screens only Movie. We slept as all of us was tried. The room is quite spacious with A/C.

Later we went to Lakshman Shruthi with my mom’s teacher’s Son. He is music teacher. My mom learns Sangeetham thus this shops sells musical instrument. She bought few Carnatic Books + CD’s and Shruthi box. We also checked on Egatha Veenai which is supposedly special. Since we bought many items they served us free Pepsi in glass.. Was amazed with their customer service.

Theafter we requested Auto (It is pronounced as AAto not Auto to exchange RM to Rupees , He took us to Bharath store. We changed few hundred RM to Rs @ exchange rate of 11.4. After we stepped out from the shop,  the Aato driver told us to wait and we saw him entering the money exchange. Guess what he would have done ?? He asked for commision from Money exchange as though as he brought us here and gave business to them Lucky guy !! Anyway that is for his living.

Don’t pronouce as Auto - No one understands it.. Always say Aato

It is already night by the time we stepped in back to hotel, the next day we need to head towards Tirupathi for Darshan thus doesn;t want to over tire ourselves. We took our shower, the water is not as salty as few years back. Previously I was staying at Taj Connemara which belongs to The Taj Group of hotels. We had our Dinner at Bhimaas itself. The food was excellent - Vegetarian food. We had Mushroom Pilaf , Hydrabad Veg Briyani and Veg fried rice accompanied with Paneer Machurian the food blanded so well and tasted so delicious. I must say Bhimaas serves one of the best Vegetarian food. Their food range from Chinese to South Indian , Tandoors and etc. We watched some tamil movie and slept off. I must say three of us had a good sleep that I hardly get when Im in Malaysia. The sleep was very peaceful .

2nd AUgust 2007.

We made arrangement from My mom’s teacher’s brother to bring us to Tirupathi. His name is Mr.Ravi and Uncle Satya is the driver , old man with youngman’s blood. They both can crack good jokes, real good jokes especially when they speak Madrasi language.. After our breakfast the same menu as mentioned earlier, we quickly grabbed for few Mineral bottle ( Drink only Aquafina) and waited for Uncle Ravi’s arrival with his Mahindra Scorpio’s . We’re carried luggage as we planned to overnight at Tirupathi. I was amazed to his car, very comfortable and it has a video player thus we was watching Sivakasi all the way to Tirupathi.

Now there is new road being build by Dato Seri from Chennai to Banglore. The road’s existence has shorten our destination to Tirupathi. It takes about 3 hours to reach Tirumala (uphill). Along the way we saw many temples along the road. Although some people are very poor but they are Hardworking, they toil day and night. They face many challenges in reality as most of the infrastructure is not up to date yet.

My good friend Suresh will be receiving us at Tirupathi. He made all the preparation for us to stay and Darshan. FYI, I have very few good friends and he is one of that. Most of my friends are well known to my family members. We have been planning this for almost 4 years and it is God whom worked Miracle to make this to happen.

Will write more…and also photos.