On a cold Sunday morning, we set out on a pilgrimage ... ordinary ... so what? ah,but an experience it was ... 10 people,different backgrounds but somehow who'd come together to take a trip to pay an obeisance to the 'Big Boss' as my Dad fondly refers to Lord Venkatramana at Tirupathi. Ok,well? ordinary ... Different?... it was ... and here's how.

First it was just 4 people ... Our family and my Uncles'. We were fortunate that another person dropped out because my close friend (ah! company! :-) )decided she'd come,so we were a cozy small group of 5. Then joined in the Jaipur Artist and the 'art patron'. Almost sounded mystical,not to mention mysterious when we heard of the occupation of the other members who joined us. And so we set out.

I've always loved Tirupathi when it rains there ... what with the flowers in bloom,not having withered from the cold.This adds to the surreal feeling one gets when driving through the 'red rock hills'. How is it that while the other hills of that particular Ghat section are made up of 'normal grey rock' and the ones constituting the 7 Tirumala Hills are a red-layered type? People believe the 7 hills to be the coils of Adi sesha,the King of snakes who provides Lord Narayana shelter and a bed to lie on. Hard to believe? Well,the fact that the red rock(sorry,no geological name found by me yet) is layered does heighten that effect. The mist stretches almost beyond one's imagination,making the path ahead far from visible.To add to the effect are the sounds of devotional songs penetrating through the interminable fog,giving rise to a feeling of hope and a feeling of being far away ... from troubles,practicality and life itself ...

The environment and the serenity I felt was,I don't know ... contagious?... with everyone falling into a calm silence as we climbed the hill.The chill reminded me that we were in the hills,but the flowers blooming aplenty somehow did not seem to fit in with the scheme of nature one normally perceives with the cold hillside in winter.

I'd prayed for rain before starting out,reminiscent of the enhanced beauty and magnificence of Tirupathi when we were there the last time 'round when it had rained,cooling the place to a comfortable temperature(duplicating the weather at home),and also giving rise to the fog and mist early,adding to the ethereality of the place.

Lo! it was raining and was I thrilled! :-) I'd taken my camera,well, sneaked it along this time,hoping to capture a few good landscape photographs of Tirumala while there.On the climb up,there's a spot where there's a small Ganesha Temple to be found and we've always prayed there before proceeding uphill.The belief beng that Lord Ganesha would make sure our journey went smooth and that we'd have a peaceful pilgrimage free of worries,tension and troubles.

The view from that point on the hill was mind-blowing and I actually (cookie me!) stood on the edge of a water tank there to get a better view,balancing a foot on the step and one,skywards,to click a picture of the imposing hillside in the mist,cold and rain.But what a picture it was! Thrilled at the first 'awesome' picture I'd gotten,I made my way back to the tempo,thanking Ganesha for the first bauble for my treasure-chest that I'd collected.

We reached in the evening at around 6 p.m and immediately checked into the Kashi Mutt,our mainstay each time we went to Tirupathi.We dropped our clothes and my friend and I got a room to ourselves,much to our delight,and then we all made our way to meet the Chief priest Dr. Ramana Dikshitar.

Dr. Dikshitar always never ceases to amaze me. A man of remarkable reading, he holds a degree in Micro-biology and was a professor of the subject before taking up priest-hood at the Tirupathi Temple,a family tradition by inheritance.