A Trip To the Seven Hills

There are things to do, and then there are things to do. One of the later was going to Tirupathy. Sweety had this mannat to go there by walk... and by default me n P.Remo were looped in. It was a tuf task finalising the schedule n all…but yo behold we managed it at last. Jan 30th was to be the D-Day and we completed all the required bookings way in advance. All set and done….. the day arrived.

Can a journey be jinxed even before it began? I for sure don’t knw….but as our trip progressed, we were pretty much convinced that yes…it was jinxed. First things first….from the minute we stepped out from our home… well we had to walk all the way to bus stop…. N ya though we managed to get the bus n reach our so called destination on time… I managed to lose sweety’s shawl. After a few tense moments…. We were all waiting for the bus. It was already 11.15 in the night. While we were pulling P.Remo’s leg that we would make him pay if we missed our bus, never in our wildest dreams did we realise that this would actually come true. Thanks to dear P.Remo’s superior logical skills, we managed to miss the bus…. It just drove by us widout even stopping. But then due credit shud also b given to him. He ran along like a man possessed…grabbed an auto…. N yo in full filmy style got the bus stopped for us. But then the sorry state was ours. We had to walk along d K.R.Puram flyover almost till the end…. Dragging along our suitcase. Phew…. D journey has not yet started….and I am already down. Bechara P.remo… had to listen to us cribbing and cursing almost throughout the journey.

As our luck would have it, we wer given the last seats in the bus. With all the bumpy ride, it was next to impossible to get even a pretence of some decent sleep. It was 5 in the morning when we got down. After an uneventful journey till Alipiri and getting our luggage placed in the cloak room, our trek to the seven hills started. My first reaction after seeing the steps leading to the 7 hills… OMG!!!!. The first 10 steps were easy…the next 15 ok types…. N then I am out. I was cramping so badly…. N it was just 50 steps that I covered. Oh noo….dis was way beyond pathetic. In d mean while I find sweety n P.Remo easily floating around. Grrrr…. Could life b more unfair I mused. Cribbing an cursing, taking a breather every 5 min… after a cup of coffee and a bottle of energy drink later, I managed to reach the Gali gopuram. While I was looking like a cat drawn through the hedges and put through a wringer, these ppl were fresh and raring to go. Ughh…its an ordeal for one’s self esteem, but then u cant even complain. All said and done, I finally managed to scale the peaks after 3 n half hrs after starting. Never mind….i was d butt of all d jokes…. And the much needed entertainment during the entire trek.

One would think that after all this, all u need is get to those rooms that we’ve booked and crash for a few minutes and then freshen up. But that seemed like a distant dream. While after roaming about diff streets we finally managed to locate the guest house, we had to face the utter idiocracy of the wardens there. Oh gosh! What a pathetic state of affairs. Since I was ready to crash any moment, Sweety and P.Remo left me at the guest house and went to resolve the issue. While I was resting, it was a good hr before they could return after knocking all the doors in d hot afternoon sun. Seriously there are times, when u wish u wer in a corruption free society. All said and done…after much un-needed ado we found the rooms and were at last able to freshen up.

After having our lunch, we went to the darshan. It was already 3 in the afternoon, and we were on move since 5.30 in the morning. With our jinxed luck , we managed to get into the wrong queue, come back again, and then search and find the rgt one. Compared to all the hurdles that we jogged rgt from the moment we started, the darshan was a relatively smooth affair. We were out by 5.30 and spent the rest of the evening taking in the sights of tirumala. It was 8 in the night by the time we reached our rooms…and I for sure crashed by 8.15. Sumwer in between sweety woke me up, but I am not sure, what it was for :P. Our P.remo roamed about till 10.30 or so.

After all this, our return journey was a smooth affair. We came down by bus this time. Went to the Govindraj Swamy temple, had our lunch and then boarded the bus back to Bangalore. Agreed the return trip was longer than anticipated, but then we managed to reach our homes in single piece.

What would I remember about this trip??? Well for sure this is one of the most jinxed trips I ever took. The amount of the physical ordeal was d 1st time high I ever faced. But then it also had its share of sweet and funny moments. The moments spent with Sweety and P.Remo memorable and funny. Thanks to them…I did finally conquer the 7 hills :P