Naham Kartha, Hari Kartha

"When i saw Tirupati Balaji" is an exemplary book

written by Mr P.V.R.K.Prasad, an IAS officer who
served as the executive officer of TTD (Tirumala
Tirupathi Devasthanams)for many years. It is a
beautiful collection of essays by Mr Prasad counting
his experiences as the first servant of god in the
capacity of executive officer of TTD. It is a highly
recommended book for believers as well as non
believers. The book is so compelling that i
completed it in 2 days. The book has reinforced my
faith in god manifolds. Ever since i have read that
book, i have been wanting to go to Tirupati.
My last trip to Tirupati was in 2007. However after
2007, i could not visit Tirupathi for some reason or
the other.
From 2007, my many plans for lord's darshan
failed. In 2012, i made yet another attempt to see
the lord at Tirupati. Everything was set. We had
booked for the seva, for the accommodation and
the taxi. We were scheduled to leave early on the
27th of June. I was all excited since this was my
visit to Tirupati after 5 years.
On the evening of the 26 June 2012, i started
feeling cold. By 6 PM, i started getting severe chills
and within few minutes i was under 5 blankets. By
8 PM i was lying in the emergency ward of Manipal
hospital.
So yet again Tirupati plan got cancelled. On the
morning of 27 June, two lucky people from my
family who 10 hours back had no plans of having
lord's darshan took my place and proceeded to
Tirupati for the lord's blessings.
We planned to go to Tirupati after my wedding on
4 November 2012. But even before we could chalk
out something , my wife fractured her leg and she
was in plaster for 6 weeks. Many events
throughout 2013 did not give us an opportunity to
plan for any trip.
All the events just buttressed my firm belief that
nothing works as per our plan. We were just not
destined to get the Lord's blessings. Tirupati
remained a distant dream for us.
It was on one fine day in April 2014 that the
thought of seeking Balaji's blessings came to me.
My brother too was planning to go to Tirupati for
many years but had not materialized. So we
decided to perform the Kalyanothsava for the lord
at Tirupati.

At Manipal Hospital, 27 June 2012

The seva has to be booked online.The portal for
the seva opens 90 days in advance and the sevas
normally get booked within an hour of portal
opening. Since two families were going, we had to
get two tickets. Myself and my wife sheethal
created two different accounts to book for the
seva.
We had planned to give for the seva on the 28 July.
So on the midnight of April 28, we were sitting and
waiting for the portal to open. The portal opened at
12:20 AM on the 28 April. We were all set to book
for the seva. But when we clicked on the "Book"
button we were getting some error message. Out
of desperation, we tried from different computers
and from different internet connections but of no
avail.
So i called up my brother in the US to try. I had to
send him all the details and passwords. We did all
that but for some reason photographs were not
attaching. After a while we were successful.
Meanwhile the sevas were getting booked very
swiftly and our hopes were dimming. My brother
could operate one account at a time. He finally
managed to get to payment gateway. I had to give
my credit card details. After all information was
entered , i did not receive the password for the
payment on my mobile phone. It finally arrived
after much delay and we were lucky to get a
confirmed booking. So two tickets for two couples
were booked 90 days in advance.
I was finally relieved by 1:30 AM and thanked
god.
We booked our Hotel and taxi well in advance. We
were pre prepared for the chaos and crowd. We
were travelling with two kids. One about 11
months (My son) and the other 4 and half years
old (My Brother's daughter).
Our plan was to leave on the afternoon of 27 July.
Reach Tirupati by late evening. Relax in the night
and head to lord's darshan the next day morning
(Kalyanothsava was scheduled at 11 AM on 28
July).
We had a small ceremony at home on 26 July.
Soon after the ceremony, my always charming and
playful niece complained of stomach ache. She was
in bad pain and we took her to the hospital at 4
PM. The doctor said there was nothing to worry
about and sent us home with some medication.
Doctor did not advise us to cancel the trip.
At around 8 PM, my niece Isha started vomiting.
We thought it was some food poisoning. But she
puked a few times and at 11 PM, we called the
doctor who asked us to get Isha to the hospital. At
11:30 PM we were at the emergency ward of
Manipal hospital. After some procedures,
medication and X ray she was discharged and we
were back home by 1 AM on 27 July. The doctor
said my niece was ok and she should not vomit
again.
But at 2:45 AM on 27 july, Isha started vomiting
again and we had to rush her to Manipal hospital.
She was admitted at the hospital. She was put on
intravenous fluids and medicines. Ironically, i was
admitted at the same hospital and same ward
exactly 25 months back (27 June 2012) with
almost the same symptoms and i too was put put
on intravenous fluids and medicines.
So, at 8 AM on 27 July, my little niece was sleeping
at Manipal hospital. Yet another Tirupati plan was
cancelled. I called up the hotel and cancelled the
booking. The cab driver called and i asked him to
cancel the trip. He too was disappointed. However,
i asked him to come over so that it will be easy for
us to commute between home and hospital and for
other odd jobs as required.
I was not destined to get the lord's blessings. My
many attempts had failed and i told myself that i
will go when the lord wishes.

It was a sad day.

Phone calls were pouring all day to enquire about
Isha's health. She is a precious baby for our family.
So all were concerned. We shuttled all day
between home and the hospital. Isha was
discharged at 5:30 PM. She was all ok and playful.
The idea of Tirupati was still clinging on my
brother's mind. Isha was normal and very
energetic. She was more than compensating for
the previous day.
At 8:00 PM my brother santosh said lets us go.
After a five minute discussion, we unanimously
decided to head out to Tirupati without a second
thought. We called the cab guy and he agreed to
show up at 4:30 AM the next day (28 July).
From somewhere we got the grit to make it. Isha,
my niece is a very precious gift of lord to our
family. We can never afford to compromise with
her health. But somehow we thought we can make
it. We were well aware of the crowd and mayhem
at Tirupati. But we still wanted to make it.
I got up at 3:00 AM the next , got ready. I was
myself not very well. I was on medication for last
two weeks. But it did not bother me. The thought
also did not come to me. I am realising that i had
forgotten my medicine only as i am writing this.
At 4:45 AM, we were off. We were 6 of us. Myself,
my wife sheethal, my son Shri Krishna, my brother
Santosh, my sister in law Vijeth and my niece Isha.
It was a very comfortable journey. We had to
struggle a little inside Tirumala to get o the right
place but by and large it was manageable.
As expected it was very crowded and people were
pushing from all directions. We were very
concerned about Krishna and Isha. But both the
kids behaved extremely well. Inspite of so many
people , amidst all the screaming and chaos, the
kids kept their calm and behaved.
We finished the kalyanothsava. By that time both
the kids had slept. By the time we were heading
towards the sanatorium for Lord's darshan, the
kids woke up. To our surprise Krishna was all
cheerful and smiling in the middle of the mayhem.
He was clapping and enjoying. We got into the
sanatorium and had a very satisfying darshan of
the God.
We got into the temple at 11 AM and we were out
by 2:30 PM. We were surprised and delighted by
the sequence of events.
I got into the car to find a few missed calls from
the relatives who were anxious to know how Isha
was doing (No one knew we were going to
Tirupati). They were surprised to learn that we did
make it to Tirupati. Everyone were appreciating
our courage to have made the trip.
My seven year long wait culminated with the lord's
darshan on the 28 of July. I never imagined that
we could make it after all the events that preceded
our visit. I do not have any explanation for the
events. I did not have anything to say to our
relatives as well but just "Naham Kartha, Hari
Kartha" .