Japali....

This was my third visit to Tirupati in last 8 months of stay in Chennai. Well, the motives have not entirely been religious :) I like it on the Tirumala hills; there’s something in the air which enchants me. I have been visiting it from childhood with family. The chanting of ‘Suprabhatam’ stotra, breathtaking views from the hills, huge crowd of pilgrims drawn from all parts of country, the exotic smell of laddus - everything is so special about the place ( Oh, my inclination towards food knows no boundaries J… and hence boundaries of my tummy have also started getting distorted :( )
The visit this time was special though. First of all, I went in for the early morning darshan (Archana Ananthara Darshanam). At 7 AM only, I took the darshan and was back to the room to compensate for the less-than-normal quota of sleep last night. Ah, just got reminded of the beautiful sentence displayed at the ‘Woodside’ – “It’s not the darshan you take; it’s the darshan he gives.” – couldn’t agree more with the author J. ‘Woodside’ is the only restaurant there which serves decent northy food and is near to the temple, so had lunch there.
The best part was the visit to Japali Teertham & Hanuman temple. Was happy to pay Rs. 150 to the Auto-Rickshaw wala old fellow for a 10 km trip & 1 hr waiting while round trip Chennai to Tirupati (by train) costs Rs 96! The Hanuman temple at Japali is one of the least known and most worthy places of visit in Tirumala. After a kilometre's trek into the woods, the darshan of lord Anjaneya is really a memorable experience. There’s a lake in thick of the woods and nothing like just sitting there listening to the chirping of birds and splashing of water. Those are the only sounds you can hear as people rarely visit this place. I was visiting it after exactly 10 years! Mar 96 was the time when I had been there earlier with all of my family. There are now well built steps leading to the place which were not there in 96. I have fond memories of that visit as it was the last trip with the whole family (3 elder sisters, younger brother, Mom and Dad; Quite a big family I’ve got :) ) The sisters then got married one by one and now even coming together twice a year seems to be difficult :( . Aso… the worst part this time was that I had only 30 minutes to spend there as I had a train to catch at 5.20. When I’ll visit next time, I will have whole day to spend and a novel to finish at this place. Trust me, no earthly pleasure (except THE one you-know-what ;-), which I haven’t experienced yet) could possibly match this one :).