Mohan’s Blog

On the early morning of 6th, I started my journey towards the world renowned temple of Sri Venkateshwara in the holy city of Tirupati. This is hardly an hour journey from the village where I spent the initial 3 days of this tour. I was at the foot hills of the temple to get the darshan token as I had planned to climb up the hill by walking all the way. Unfortunately, the officials weren’t issuing any darshan tokens as the number of people in the God’s abode were very less in number as compared to the average piligrims on a daily basis. They suggested me to get in to the darshan ‘Q’ as soon as possible to get an early darshan. Also, there ware not sure when the piligrims would start to rush in again! So, I decided to call off my walk to the hill top and took bus service instead. On the way I captured some of the sceneries around the hills while traveling in a bus from Tirupati to Tirumala.

Very good darshan of the god Lord Venkateshwara happened around 4pm on the same day and started back my journey from Tirumala to the foot hills (Alipiri) where my friend Chakri was waiting to pick me up for a stay at his place for that night. On the way to his house, we visited another temple where Sree Chakra has been installed by Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji. That was a good temple which was never visited before though I am regular to Tirupati every year! After having a good food, had a lot of discussion with him and his dad on various topics.

The next day (7th Mar) morning started my journey towards Srikalahasti, another holy place where the temple of Lord Shiva exists. This place is around 38 kilometers from Tirupati. You would be surprised to see the number of Shiv Linga’s in that temple. One that attracted me the most was that made up of Crystal. Apart from the main Shiva Linga, there exists an idol of goddess Gnana Prasoonambika. Completed my deities at that temple too and returned back to Penumuru in the afternoon. On the way, I captured few snaps of a 2 stone hill near my native village. This place is called ‘Guntesuni Konda’. Looks like an archeological remain of the Stone Age era! It is very much visible from the Chittoor town too.

Around dawn I made it to my grandparents (Mom’s Parents) village – Mopireddy palle, kottha indlu near Ugranam palle. Both the grandparents are not on this earth anymore. But still that village has a lot to remember about. This is the village in which I was born. I was glad to see the existence of a village hut in which I was born on this earth, captured this historic place of my life in my camera! Once upon a time, this village used to be my summer holiday destiny during my childhood after moving to Bangalore. After loosing both the grand parents, I lost interest over a period of time to visit this place. But the momories of those childhood days in the farming lands, grass roof village huts and many more things are still green!

I am too lazy to write this post after such a relaxing and great time over the past one week away from Bangalore. Though the temperature conditions were very humid and dry, it was never felt tiresome! Well, the first three days of my visit were very much limited to Kumbhaabhishekam at Sri Venugopalaswamy temple in my native village - Kamachinnayya palle near Penumuru. There were a number of deities in the possession as the temple was renovated after a long time.

I learned that the temple was built in 1944 – an era prior to Indian independence. Later in 1962, it was renovated and 2nd Mahaprokshana (Installation of the Devata) took place. Villagers were so occupied since then, they never thought about renovating and carrying out the next “prokshana” till last year or so. Somehow, things started flowing in the right direction and temple was given a all new look as well as the God idols of Pancha Loha were made available to the temple this time as well. Many events were organized as a part of these devotional proceedings over a span of three days. Some entertainment programs were also included to flush in huge number of people. As a result, I took my time out to understand our rich cultural talent pool available in villages even today. First day ie., 3rd of March, I had a chance to witness Harikatha kalakshepam based on the story of Sri Krishna – Rukmini kalyanam. Similarly on 4th, Annamayya Sankeertana by TTD folks was too good to witness. On the last day of ‘Prokshana’, the metallic idols were moved inside the temple after a lot of Yagna/yaga by Vedopanishant pandits, On the same day, we witnessed Krishna-Rukmini-Sathyabhama leela kalyanotsavam, after which the gods were paraded in all the streets of the village.

In the mean time, I also had a chance to visit the village hut in which few of my childhood years were spent before moving to Bangalore. Got very emotional when I spent sometime inside it, all my childhood days started to flow in my mind and couldn’t control myself. I’m not sure if that was because of the joy or due to missing that place since past 20+ years!