Tirupati & Srikalahasti visit

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!