At Tirumalai temple.--------tour diary. 15.8.12
The delaying, obstruction and diversionary tactics that ppt's have honed to perfection came to the fore in full blast in their own turf.
The ttd machinery took inordinate time to issue a room .Whilst my donor card would ensure immediate darshan , within an hour , now it was deliberately overlooked and were made to wait for 3 hours, that to just enter the q complex with the usual attempts to arrest our attention ad to provoke us by making a group of young policemen create a melee of sort by chasing away supposedly gate crashing pilgrims[.One of them stepped on my toes with his boots and couldn't be bothered to apologise.]The extent ppt's go to show their might is simply touching.
So whilst my son and his pal retired to the room to rest that they sorely needed after the early morning climb up the hills, we whiled away the time sitting on the steps near the entry.
Would ppt's allow such a golden chance to slip to educate me on the flavours of India?Like as i was a foreigner and not born and bred here .I have visited Tirumalai at least once in every year for the past 40 years.
So whilst i educated myself on the current choice of saree's of middle class women , silk cotton in as colourful hues as lower class women choose in polyesters,ppt's tried to educate me about the lower classes , a little lower than me , by seating whole families beside me ,though several steps lay vacant, specially young men with wives and babies. Were they rubbing salt or opening a door to the future? PPT,s motives are so shady to fanthom that one is never sure as to what actually lurks in their murky depths.
After this long wait we were allowed to join the q that was uncharacteristically too long for my type of ticket . It was the special q for couples with babies less than a year , a new facility for pilgrims . My bachelor student son and his friend senses were bombareded from all sides by squeals and wails of babies and their tiny wriggling bodies that petrified them and scared them out of their wits ,used as they are to groups of men lustily cheering 'Govinda govinda 'whilst pushing and shoving every one around in the stampede of sorts that bursts at the final assault near the sanctum , and thus felt quite cheated at this tame victory.
To add to the tamasha a body builder along with a dwarf jumped the q and then jumped out again and a dark lad with sacred ash smeared all over his forehead kept shouting Govinda govinda , less with religious fervour and more with the intention to irritate.
As for me i enjoyed the rose bud like faces all around me along with their squeals and was glad that their presence ensured less rowdiness and aggression from their young fathers.
An amazon entered the line behind me effortlessly and sprayed the shampoo scent just as i entered the sanctum .Once again demonstrating the long reach of ppt's and the untiring efforts of charlies.
As usual the darshan of Srinivasar was fleeting but it was without the accompaniment of the usual violent pushing.
It was a good darshan but it wasn't touching as it usually is .ppt's tricks and antics succeeded as it was intended, to remove the punch.
The ttd machinery took inordinate time to issue a room .Whilst my donor card would ensure immediate darshan , within an hour , now it was deliberately overlooked and were made to wait for 3 hours, that to just enter the q complex with the usual attempts to arrest our attention ad to provoke us by making a group of young policemen create a melee of sort by chasing away supposedly gate crashing pilgrims[.One of them stepped on my toes with his boots and couldn't be bothered to apologise.]The extent ppt's go to show their might is simply touching.
So whilst my son and his pal retired to the room to rest that they sorely needed after the early morning climb up the hills, we whiled away the time sitting on the steps near the entry.
Would ppt's allow such a golden chance to slip to educate me on the flavours of India?Like as i was a foreigner and not born and bred here .I have visited Tirumalai at least once in every year for the past 40 years.
So whilst i educated myself on the current choice of saree's of middle class women , silk cotton in as colourful hues as lower class women choose in polyesters,ppt's tried to educate me about the lower classes , a little lower than me , by seating whole families beside me ,though several steps lay vacant, specially young men with wives and babies. Were they rubbing salt or opening a door to the future? PPT,s motives are so shady to fanthom that one is never sure as to what actually lurks in their murky depths.
After this long wait we were allowed to join the q that was uncharacteristically too long for my type of ticket . It was the special q for couples with babies less than a year , a new facility for pilgrims . My bachelor student son and his friend senses were bombareded from all sides by squeals and wails of babies and their tiny wriggling bodies that petrified them and scared them out of their wits ,used as they are to groups of men lustily cheering 'Govinda govinda 'whilst pushing and shoving every one around in the stampede of sorts that bursts at the final assault near the sanctum , and thus felt quite cheated at this tame victory.
To add to the tamasha a body builder along with a dwarf jumped the q and then jumped out again and a dark lad with sacred ash smeared all over his forehead kept shouting Govinda govinda , less with religious fervour and more with the intention to irritate.
As for me i enjoyed the rose bud like faces all around me along with their squeals and was glad that their presence ensured less rowdiness and aggression from their young fathers.
An amazon entered the line behind me effortlessly and sprayed the shampoo scent just as i entered the sanctum .Once again demonstrating the long reach of ppt's and the untiring efforts of charlies.
As usual the darshan of Srinivasar was fleeting but it was without the accompaniment of the usual violent pushing.
It was a good darshan but it wasn't touching as it usually is .ppt's tricks and antics succeeded as it was intended, to remove the punch.
posted by K.C. Sujata at
4:15 AM
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