In India everyone knows TTD as Tirumala Tirupati Devasthaanaas. I figured out in future it may stand for Tirumala Tirupati Disappointments if something is not done by the temple authorities to correct the way they treat the crowd and provide enough information for them at the temple to make their visit memorable.
I will be highly critical of the tretment of the crowd than the arrangements made to control the crowd. Crowd control has not changed for more than 30 years when other things have changed. The TTD website details the facilities provided for different types of darshanas to control the crowd. I know that controlling crowds of 50k+ daily is no joke. But once you go there, it takes quite a bit of time for non-telugu speaking person to seek the correct and the required information.
I wanted to experience the darshan as a commoner. I did not want to choose Sheeghra-darshanam as I would miss out on common person experience. I did not want to choose Sarva-darshanam as I would be taking a chance on waits nearing 24 hours in the waiting rooms without knowing what exactly is in store for me in those rooms. Only option that was left was Divya-darshanam. But to do that, I had to climb the steps and I had to prepare well.
After reading several blogs on the experiences of many, I prepared by climbing Shravana-Belgola mountain first with 650+ steps, then Chaamundeshwari hill with 1000+ steps to see whether I can do it and if so, how I can do it. After climbing both the mountains, I was ready to deal with 4000+ steps at Tirupati to Tirumala with some confidence.
I prepared, both mentally and physically, to do this climb at an average level with the time of completion being 4 hours. I was pleasantly surprised that I could come out a bit better than average when I did it in three hours and forty-five minutes. I attribute that to my QTIME learning methods shamelessly. The experience of this climb was unique, but the disappointments after that were painful.
I will broadly categorize them into two – lack of information at the temple, treatment of crowd during the waiting and during darshan. It directly relates to one human being treating the other – a relation that is created by humans for humans with few being in the power of managing it and the many at the mercy of receiving it. I was in the midst of the crowd that consisted of villagers, people with ‘harake’, and people like me who had decided to do this to challenge themselves.
You have to ask for foot path darshan if you have climbed the hill. I was happy to see a board at the end of the steps that proclaimed all the walkers will get a free accommodation, free food and free darshan that would start ahead of sarva-darshan at 12,13 and 15. I figured that they are some kind of waiting room numbers ahead of others.
After managing the lack of information that would direct me to right places, I proceeded to wait in the queue at around 7:30 pm. Without the help from Manju (the car driver), I could not have survived the rain and the disappointments that awaited me ahead. Since the queue to enter the waiting rooms was not that long, I was happy that I made a good decision. But the happiness vanished with a blink of an eye as the person who checked the footpath tokens said that I needed to wear proper shirts (not T-shirts) and no shorts are allowed as a dress code. I explained that no such information was given to me anywhere prior and pleaded to let me in as it was raining and the driver had left with my cell phone. Please note that I took care to research this and did not take the cell phone as it was not allowed. But he was merciless.
I turned back disappointed and dashed out to locate the driver in the rain with the hopes of finding him in time and get back with proper wears. Luckily, he was not too far away and I thanked the almighty god for helping me out. I rushed back to the room and got dressed to rush back in the rain to the same place within twenty minutes.
But I was stopped as the queue had grown beyond that entry point. I explained that I was there before, but had to rush back as I was asked to change the dress. But it was in vain. I came across several mis-information that led me to believe that I cannot get any darshan till 6am and decided to return to room and make another attempt at 5am in the morning hoping to get out by 9am giving four hours to myself to make it happen.
What was in store for me the next day was perhaps only known to Lord Venkateshwara.