Trip to Pondi - Thirupathi !!!

For the last few weekends I'm totally busy... and as per the plans kept now, for the coming weekends till November I would be held up...
Its been one week since I've gone to Pondicherry and from there Thirupathi.. Last to last friday and monday I took leave... The plan was to go to thirupathi to do tonsure for my nephew Abhinav (shambhu). Parents and Chettathi along with shambu came to Pondi from tvm and got settled in Chettans staff quarters. I put several plans to travel from b'lore to pondi.. Multiple travel plans... Ultimately by heart I wanted to go by my makku.. :-). But no one was allowing me to drive alone... So I called up the great Pradeep alias kidangoor... He came to b'lore from Cochin on Friday afternoon. Late as per the plan... Still we started by around 1.00 pm from bangalore towards Pondi in my dearest makku... Started with scared chants song till almost krishnagiri.. This is the second time am driving to pondi... I really really enjoyed driving... The roads were awesome... I was already aware about the behaviour of the roads... From Krishnagiri we took left turn towards Chennai and after say 200mts took right turn towards Pondi... Almost a straight stretch till pondi... Its a 2 way road, with multiple patches without divider.. So its better to drive during morning hours only... Less traffic as expected... Both sides of the road is covered with trees.. Hardly you can find the sky... I love such drives... Almost 6 1/2 hours we took to reach pondi..But I never felt that I drove 6 hrs continuously. By 7.30 we were at the heart of pondi, Indira Gandhi Circle.. Till that time my makku entertained us... But once we stopped and got out to the streets of Pondi, I could sense the intense heat.. I felt like I'm getting some breathing problem... Brother and my family along with my bros. collegue came to greet us and took us to a hotel where they had booked one A/C room. Oh God.. if it was not A/C I would have cremated myself in Pondi itself. After leaving us there, they went back to the quarters... We had small sessions that night.. and had a deep sleep...

It was 6.30am Saturday, we woke up... Nethraprakash, by bros collegue came to our room, we had a quick bath and a lovely pondi tea and started towards bros. quarters... From there, we started towards Thirupathi by 8.30am leaving behind achan... Pondi to thirupathi is more far than B'lore to Pondi... we reached thirumala my 4pm. Had a quick lunch... Brother and prakash went to change the VIP pass to ticket.. Chettan could arrange a VIP pass from some of his collegue... Meanwhile mylsef, Pradeep, amma and chettathi went for shambus tonsure... It was a tough time for us to get it done... We had to run around here and there first to find out where to do this... after a long long time myself and pradeep got into the place where tonsure is done for kids... I got hold of shambu and sat there to execute the activity... Initially he was happy.. but the moment the blade touched his head, he started crying.. Crying to the core... I found it difficult to manage him... Stopped the activity, ran down and pulled amma and chettathi in... Next chettathi tried to hold him.. she too was a big failure... them amma tried... finally poor, my dear shambu got tired of crying and quickly the work was done... We went back to the parking area... met chettan and prakash. Then we went towards the queue for darshan. We thought that VIP pass less people will be there.. But to our surprise, we took almost 2+ hours to get the drashan... But we all could have a proper darshan and finaly after collecting prasadam, we left back to pondi.. It was 3.00 am Sunday, when we reached back... Had a tight sleep in the hotel room...
Woke up at 10.00am and started towards brothers quarters... Had my chettathi's breakfast. Took amma and achan to Auroville beach. Then to Auroville ashramam... The atmosphere was so peaceful. I could see my achan enjoying every bit of it.:-). Then we went and saw the golden globe. Couldn't go near to that since it was under maintenance. After that site seeing, we went to a Hanuman temple. We sat there for a while enjoying the beautiful sunset. Netraprakash helped us a lot as a guide through out the travel... Came back to bros. quarters by 6.30pm. Train was at 9.45pm for amma and achan from Villipuram. A quick dinner and some play stuffs with shambhu, they got into my bros. car and was about to leave... Then comes our little hero Shambu... He could sense that all of them are going to leave, leaving him alone... :-(. Started crying... No one could stop him from that... Sentiments erroused in everyone.. My amma was not in a position to leave him and go... And for the first time in my life, I've seen my ever brave achan going down emotionally... Yes... Kids can do wonder !!!....... Ultimately after a lot of struggle and circus, chettathi with her night dress on got in to the car and escorted Shambu to the railway station... Meanwhile me and Pradeep got into my makku and went back to my hotel... I was continuously calling netraprakash who was along with my family heading towards railway station... Its 40 Kms away from bros. quarters... 9.30pm, my call was attended by him telling that, it will take another 20 more mins to reach the station... I was totally disappointed.. Will they miss the train ??? On the way to station, my bros. car got punctured it seems.. :-(. He is a newbie to these stuffs and couldn't change the flat tyre by himself... Someone else helped and somehow they reached the station by 10pm... Thank God train was delayed and came by 10.05pm... Atlast everything went well... Could sleep with peace that day, reserving the energy to drive back to bangalore next day... Yes I know.. another 6 more hours of drive... leaving behind my family, good memories and especially my dearest shambu... I love him...
Monday 8.30am... myself and Pradeep woke up.. 9.30am we started back to bangalore... I drove as fast as I can... In between at one village we had a super breakfast in a said to be hotel... Can't even imagine someone will have food from there.. But we enjoyed the change... :-). Makku was roaring for the remaining journey... Didn't stop anywhere else... I just kept my legs on the accelarator pushing it down never releasing... 110Kms/hr most of the time.. and we touched B'lore border by 3.00 pm.. Breakfast @ pondi and Lunch @ B'lore... Leaving behind all tiring days past, we safely reached back home... I really enjoyed that drive back.. :-). The same day Pradeep went back to Cochin by 9.30 bus... He has shown me what a friend in need is a friend indeed... :-)