It was an unfulfilled dream of my entire family for a long time to go to Tirupati together. We are emotionally attached to this place since it is the birthplace of my mother, me and my sister and where my grand parents had spent most of their married life and hence the importance of this dream.More than anyone, my sister badly wanted to visit her birthplace since she has not been there even once after her birth.
For a long time, we have been blindly believing that we were the descendants of those who had the curse that they could not visit the temple with the family. One day, my mother has got a chance to perform in the temple of Thiruchanoor and my sister wanted to tag along and booked her tickets. Just one day before the travel, my sister met with an accident and could not travel. But she did not let this incident or the belief affect her desire in any way but made it stronger in stead. The next time we planned once again and were hoping and praying that nothing should come between now. Though there were some small cliches we finally made it to Tirupati, thanks to the continuous visualization of my sister. It was a four day trip from Feb 19th to 22nd (in fact 5 days.. i could not make it to Sripuram and Arunachalam on 18th). Thanks to my uncle who looked after our accomodation and transport during the entire trip because of which everything went on smoothly. The last two days were alloted only to visit places in Tirupati where my mother lived, studied, played,visited and enjoyed. We covered all the places except a temple of Lord Hanuma which my mother used to visit frequently. On the last day, when we were about to go back to our guest house to pack and leave, we passed by the music college, where my mother studied and where my grand father Late Dr. V L Janakiram worked as a professor. We decided to stop and visit the college. The first big hall inside the college had a big picture of my grand father. My mother met the senior staff and the principal of the college who know her and introduced me and my sister to them.Most of them knew me also because I was the favourite of my grand father. The principal told us that "Akhandam" (A music festival that goes on continuously for 24 hours) was going on in that Hanuman temple. Coincidentally, Akhandam was started in Tirupati by my grand father in that temple many years back and later the music college was made the venue. This time, it was again being conducted at the same place. My instinct said I had to go to that temple right away in spite of my father's warnings about getting late for the train. The priest in the temple recognised my mother and remebered that my grand father taught me music. He immediately arranged the stage for me to sing. For me it was a divine opportunity..... I had a chance to sing on the same stage set by my grandfather in the favourite temple of my mother. I rendered a favourite krithi of my grand father "Bantu Reethi Koluvu" and I could still not believe what was happening there. To add to my excitement, my uncle V L Kumar, a renowned Violin artist had come to the same festival and neither of us knew of each other's presence in Tirupati and he played Violin for my next Krithi. My joy knew no bounds (as well as my entire family's).All our eyes were filled with tears of joy. I could not call it a concidence any more when I saw that they were distributing booklets of notations of Pancharatna krithis, the copies of manuscripts written by my grand father. I can never forget the words of people "We felt as if your grand father was performing on the stage. His soul would have been very happy today".
That was a magical trip and all that started when we stopped believing that God has a problem with allowing a family to a temple if their ancestors could not make it. Some day in the future,I hope I would be connecting the dots using this blog.
For a long time, we have been blindly believing that we were the descendants of those who had the curse that they could not visit the temple with the family. One day, my mother has got a chance to perform in the temple of Thiruchanoor and my sister wanted to tag along and booked her tickets. Just one day before the travel, my sister met with an accident and could not travel. But she did not let this incident or the belief affect her desire in any way but made it stronger in stead. The next time we planned once again and were hoping and praying that nothing should come between now. Though there were some small cliches we finally made it to Tirupati, thanks to the continuous visualization of my sister. It was a four day trip from Feb 19th to 22nd (in fact 5 days.. i could not make it to Sripuram and Arunachalam on 18th). Thanks to my uncle who looked after our accomodation and transport during the entire trip because of which everything went on smoothly. The last two days were alloted only to visit places in Tirupati where my mother lived, studied, played,visited and enjoyed. We covered all the places except a temple of Lord Hanuma which my mother used to visit frequently. On the last day, when we were about to go back to our guest house to pack and leave, we passed by the music college, where my mother studied and where my grand father Late Dr. V L Janakiram worked as a professor. We decided to stop and visit the college. The first big hall inside the college had a big picture of my grand father. My mother met the senior staff and the principal of the college who know her and introduced me and my sister to them.Most of them knew me also because I was the favourite of my grand father. The principal told us that "Akhandam" (A music festival that goes on continuously for 24 hours) was going on in that Hanuman temple. Coincidentally, Akhandam was started in Tirupati by my grand father in that temple many years back and later the music college was made the venue. This time, it was again being conducted at the same place. My instinct said I had to go to that temple right away in spite of my father's warnings about getting late for the train. The priest in the temple recognised my mother and remebered that my grand father taught me music. He immediately arranged the stage for me to sing. For me it was a divine opportunity..... I had a chance to sing on the same stage set by my grandfather in the favourite temple of my mother. I rendered a favourite krithi of my grand father "Bantu Reethi Koluvu" and I could still not believe what was happening there. To add to my excitement, my uncle V L Kumar, a renowned Violin artist had come to the same festival and neither of us knew of each other's presence in Tirupati and he played Violin for my next Krithi. My joy knew no bounds (as well as my entire family's).All our eyes were filled with tears of joy. I could not call it a concidence any more when I saw that they were distributing booklets of notations of Pancharatna krithis, the copies of manuscripts written by my grand father. I can never forget the words of people "We felt as if your grand father was performing on the stage. His soul would have been very happy today".
That was a magical trip and all that started when we stopped believing that God has a problem with allowing a family to a temple if their ancestors could not make it. Some day in the future,I hope I would be connecting the dots using this blog.
