In the last week of August 2021,
on a lazy weekend, Bhavia and I were looking at the calendar with long weekends
for this year. It is one of our favorite pass times. We realized the immediate
one was just around the corner in the second week of September.
With Covid still in the air, we
had to be careful about the place we chose. While each of us is fully
vaccinated now, Nirvaan is still the odd boy out. We asked my cousin's family
if they would be interested in travelling. Out of the 7 people in their house,
3 agreed. That meant we had 6 adults and Nirvaan travelling out.
We had been living in Bangalore
for 4 years now and Tirupati was always on our list. While most people drive
up, with Bhavia being the only person in the group with the skillsets of a
driver, it was certainly not an option on hands.
Next up, was the option of trains
from Bangalore, many going to Renigunta and some straight to Tirupati. While
seats were available, timings didn’t look great and more importantly we had
heard about number of devotees being allowed to enter per day being truncated
due to Covid. Last thing we wanted to do was to reach Tirupati and run around
trying to organize everything.
I suggested that we should look
for Bus Tour Packages which handles all the logistics while you enjoy the
sojourn. While Bhavia had travelled on an AC Sleeper with me long ago to
Mahabaleshwar and once in a poorly designed AC seater from Goa to Mumbai, all
her experiences of bus journeys have been disasters. After shifting to
Bangalore, I had done 2 AC Sleeper bus journeys to Mumbai on the Platinum Class
of Orange Tours and Travels and had come off mightily impressed.
Nirvaan, a son of Railfan but a
hard-core Bus fan was itching to take his maiden AC Sleeper bus journey. We
googled through a few travel websites and finally locked onto Vibhav Holidays'
Tirupati Tour Package.
Package cost was Rs 2750 per
person and included Pickup and Drop at Tin Factory Bus Stop ( around 3-4 kms
from our house), hotel to freshen up, breakfast, transfer to APSRTC Bus which
will take us up the Saptagiri hills to Tirumala, Sheegra Darshan Ticket, One
Ladoo, Lunch and Padmavati Temple visit. It had everything we were looking for
to circumvent our logistic challenges.
The bus starts from Anand Rao
Circle near Majestic around 22.00hrs. We received the bus details and the
driver information via SMS. At 22.05, we got a call saying the bus is running
ahead of schedule and would reach Tin Factory Bus Stop by 22.45
My cousin got her cab at 22.00
and left ahead. Our cab was still 16 min away and when the Ola cab driver
called us (which they normally do to understand the destination and cancel the
booking as it was a short distance trip), I tried a trick which I most often
try for short distance Ola Bookings.
As soon as the cab driver calls, I hand it over to my spouse to answer. She does her best to convince the driver by saying, you are the only savior we have and our bus to Tirupati is expected soon. The cab drivers are human too and mostly don’t cancel such distressed calls. It worked again and the poor soul did come to pick us up from around 2 km away. We got in and reached our destination within 15 min by 22.30hrs. I did tip him at the end for ensuring our trip does start on time and on a good note.
Anybody who has seen or heard
about Tin Factory Bus stop in Bangalore would understand the issues with the
place. It’s the gateway to Whitefield, ITPL, Hoskote with Outer Ring Road and
Old Madras Road converging near the famous Cable stayed bridge over the
Krishnarajapuram Railway Station. To make matters worse, the BMRCL has also
started civil work for the Jyotipuram station (Tin Factory Metro Station)
BMTC, KSTDC, APSTRC, innumerable
private buses, tempos, trucks, trailers, autos and cabs halt at this bus stop
to add to the chaos. We decided to stand near a non-existent footpath till our
bus actually arrives. We knew, we will have to dodge the traffic towards
Whitefield and rush towards the ramp of the Cable stayed bridge as soon as our
bus is visible. But, that was better than standing in the middle of the road
with Nirvaan. Within the next 10 minutes, we spotted the bus which was
christened as “Balaji”. We quickly made the typical Indian sign of raising your
hand to the incoming traffic to slow down as we scampered towards the ramp and
boarded quickly after the Bus representative checked on our seat numbers.
At 3:10 am, I heard a man
shouting to wake everyone up. This middle aged man wasn’t on board when we left
Bangalore. We realized that he was going to be our guide for the day and we had
already reached Tirupati. He was clear in his instructions.
We were heading to a hotel (Seven
Hills Hotel) room. The instructions were to freshen up and wear traditional
clothes. We had to report to the lobby level of the hotel at 4 am as breakfast
was going to be served there. We were given 3 rooms for 7 tickets, all on the
2nd floor. The rooms were basic in nature with one bed, clean bathroom and fan.
After finishing our morning chores, we headed for the breakfast downstairs which
included, tea, idlis, vadas and upma with chutney and sambar. It was filling
for a 4 am breakfast for sure.
After getting back on the bus,
our tour guide again instructed us that we would now be entering Tirupati City
and will have to wait for an APSRTC Bus. To go uphill, everyone has to changeover from
Balaji bus to Saptagiri Express (APSRTC non ac bus). This is mandatory as other
tour buses aren’t allowed to go up the hill to Tirumala. After taking a left
turn from the highway, we could see a chain of ramps and flyovers populating
the City Centre. The work was in progress and we went over a railway over
bridge and caught a fleeting glimpse of some express entering Tirupati as
well. Our Balaji Bus was soon parked behind an APSRTC bus and as instructed
earlier we shifted to the Saptagiri Express. We were also told to leave our
suitcases in the Balaji bus and carry only essentials to the new bus.
After boarding the Saptagiri bus
(this was exclusively booked for passengers of Balaji bus), our guide went out
and came back with the driver and tickets for Sheegra Darshan. After taking a
head count, we left Tirupati city for the uphill climb to Tirumala. We reached
the Entry gates to Tirumala which is at the base of the hill. We were all asked
to get off the bus and walk a few metres ahead while the bus was being
sanitized and cleared by the security personnel. Within a few seconds we were
all back on board and the climb started at around 5 am.
Road was one way from here and
had 2 lanes. It was extremely smooth and without a single pothole. The climb
was more subtle than the return journey (more on that later) and as the sun was
rising, we were beginning to realize that we had been gaining quite a lot of
altitude. At many vantage points over the entire mountain range, we could see
the valley below and the Tirupati City spreading into outskirts. It was a
breath-taking ride and at one point, the guide advised the co-passengers who
had planned a tonsure to get off while we were headed to Ram Bagicha bus stop.
As we alighted there, we were guided to one of the many shops in the Hanuman
market. We could keep our phones and other electronic gadgets and shoes in that
shop with a token. We had to wait for around 20-30 minutes at the Ram Bagicha
bus stop till the co-passengers returned.
Our guide handed over the Sheegra
Darshan tickets, which were issued in our names. Nirvaan didn’t need one. We
were already asked to carry the Photo ID cards which we had used to register
online while booking for Vibhav tours as that was mentioned in our Sheegra
Darshan Tickets for cross-verification by the temple authorities. We were
carrying Aadhar Cards with us. We entered through gate EL6 and were asked to
return to Ram Bagicha Bus stop after our darshan. Guide was still accompanying
us while he showed us around the route to take, collect Prasad ladoo etc.
After walking for some distance
we could catch our first glimpse of the Gold Plated temple structure. We came
down the steps and there was no dearth of space to walk around in the open
space. I can only imagine how crowded it could get had it not been for the
Covid induced reduction in devotee entries. There was ample space to maintain
social distance and even run around for Nirvaan on that ground.
We were led into the first of the
series of blocks which had seating arrangements to hold around 50-60 devotees
at one go. After sitting there for more than 30 minutes, we were taken in
smaller batches into a hall which was the place where our Tickets and Photo-IDs
were checked. While we had fed Aadhar Card details for everyone in our group,
Bhavia and I had our PAN numbers fed during booking. I was carrying both the
IDs and it wasn’t going to be an issue for me, but Bhavia was only carrying her
Aadhar Card and it did lead us into some tense moments as we approached the
immigration styled blocks for checks.
We devised a plan to walk
together to the block and show my ID and ticket which also had Bhavia’s ticket
below mine. I would hold her Aadhar as well to indicate that she was my
companion. The personnel checked my details and then looked at her ticket and
didn’t mind looking at great details into her Aadhar card as I continued to
indicate that she was with me. So even though the Photo-ID details on Ticket
didn’t match, we were let in. It was a great sigh of relief as the instructions
leading to these blocks indicated that the Photo-ID and Ticket Reference
details have to match for a successful pass through.
We then went through a series of
long walkways which were very clean and controlled at ensure crowding never
happened. There were Washrooms at every few metres and finally after 20-30 min
we entered the main temple and had a very good darshan without any commotion.
We took our own sweet time in walking within the inner sanctum. We came out and
while the rest of my family rested alongside the temple perimeter walls, I went
to collect the Prasad ladoo which was included in our Sheegra Darshan Ticket. I
also paid Rs 50 per ladoo to buy more ladoos for office and other family
members who couldn’t accompany us. There were around 60 queues and getting
ladoos didn’t take too much time.
We started our walk back to Ram
Bagicha bus stop and sun had heated up the asphalt roads. Thankfully one
strip on the road was painted in white and science of reflection and less absorption
kicked in. We could clearly notice the difference in temperature on our feet
while walking on the white strip.
We bought few bottles of water
and quenched our thirst. We decided against eating anything as the next part of
the trip involved a bus ride downhill. After waiting for almost an hour for
everyone in our group to return to the same spot our tour guide organised
an APSRTC bus for us again.
The route downhill was different
from the one we used to come up. While it was smooth the issue was it involved
steeper slopes and many hair pin bends in zig zag fashion. It could easily
induce motion sickness and our plan of not eating anything definitely worked.
Nirvaan having woken up early slept all the way downhill making it difficult to
holding him in place in a sitting bus.
After coming downhill, we were
halted at a sidewalk where our Balaji bus was parked to pick us up. We did the
transit and within 15 minutes reached the Seven Hills Hotel on the National
Highway for lunch by noon.
We asked our tour guide an access
to a room to freshen up. Looking at Nirvaan, he offered the room without any
charges as this wasn’t part of the package. While others in our troop started
lunch, we went up the room, freshened and then came back to the ground
floor to eat.
Lunch was a simplistic buffet of
Rice, Sambar, Rasam, some Alu bhaji curd and pickle. I just ate rice and
rasam which was very tasty. We hopped onto the bus again for a short 15 min
ride to Padmavati Temple. The guide told us that we should keep all our
belongings and shoes in the bus and just go to the temple, take darshan and
return back within 30 min. Idea was good to avoid wastage of time at temple
counter but we realised that it wasn’t a good idea to leave our shoes back in
the bus. We were dropped at the entrance of the Padmavati temple so our feet
were almost burning out. After entering the temple it was
okay as there was enough shade inside but as soon as we came out of the temple
premises we realized that bus was no more standing at the entrance and it had
moved away into a parking location at least 500 metres away.
I walked out with Nirvaan in my
arms and the scorching heat was literally burning my feet. Following me were
the rest of my family members who were equally agonized with the problem at
hand (rather feet). We could hardly sprint for 5-6 steps before jumping into
the shade from the roadside shops. But the crowd was so much that there weren’t
many places where we could hop into. With Nirvaan in my arms, the additional
weight made it even more difficult to walk. Finally, I decided to stay put
under a shade till everyone in my family got onto the bus, which we could spot
from where we were standing. It was a very painful experience.
It must thank Bhavia here as she
was smart enough to reach the bus and literally get walked back with my
chappals in her hand after she wore her shoes. It was so much of a relief to
wear my chappals back and return to the bus. Everyone who had returned to the
bus barefoot was complaining. The guide did sheepishly apologise to the city
dwellers in us who could barely withstand this heat for 500 metres. We can
imagine how countless poor fellow Indians still walk barefoot in our
countryside.
Our Guide after counting down the
people on-board bid good bye to us. I did tip him for giving us the room at the
hotel before lunch to freshen up. It was around 2:30 pm by now and return
journey was uneventful. We all slept like there was no tomorrow. Our first halt
was round 5 pm where I got off and brought in some snacks to munch on till we
reach our destination. We reached Tin factory stop by around 7:20 pm and after
bargaining with 2 auto drivers we reached home by 7:40 pm.
We all soaked in hot bath and
ordered food online for a light dinner before hitting the sack for the night.
It was a wonderful trip with no stress at all. It ticked all the boxes in our
checklist especially with Covid-19 still in the air. I would highly recommend
devotees who are interested in going to Tirupati to take this route. Next
morning, Nirvaan was still re-living the bus ride and Bhavia has finally agreed
to do more AC Sleeper Bus trips with me after the the Tirupati Bus ride.
