Midterm exams on Friday, Chennai on Saturday, Tirupathi on Sunday and Monday back to tiring classes, last weekend’s trip was one of my worst planned. I started from Kozhikode to chennai with no plans of visiting tirupathi coz I was exhausted with all the travel plans suggested by my relatives and could not get tickets for tirumala darshan either on Saturday or Sunday. But after reaching Chennai my gut feeling said “why not give a try?” I made up my mind to visit tirupathi, irrespective of getting tickets for darshan. No words to describe the encouraging scene at home, as if I’m preparing for a battlefield, with statements like “Lord Venki won’t let you down by denying his darshan” were floating around. I packed my bags to tirupathi at 10 pm Saturday, from Chennai with only constraint of returning back by Sunday evening 6 pm as I had to catch my train back to Kozhikode at 8 pm. With literally no sleep during the journey, I reached Tirupathi the next day at early morning 2.30 am and enquired people around there about the 5 am darshan ticket counter. There is a special counter for darshan tickets (Rs.50) for the same day. This is issued daily at 5.00 in morning and will run out in few hours, especially in weekends. I reached the counter at 3 am and was awe struck by the crowd there. People were sleeping there in the queue path, right from the last day night. I literally gave up my hope of getting a darshan ticket on seeing the queue. But I was extremely fortunate to get a darshan ticket and that too in for morning 8.00 am darshan. After this everything went on my way. I had Lord Srinivas’s darshan and returned to Chennai on time. This trip should have otherwise been a planned and peaceful trip but I spoiled it with my poor planning. Asymmetry of information regarding the ways to get tickets was also an important factor contributing to this mess. But if you guys are planning for such a trip to Tirupathi then you can go for any one of the options below for booking darshan tickets (Based on my research and learning I had prepared the following list)
- If you are a person who plan things well in advance then this is for you. Based on my research I found that darshan tickets are available at few of the major cities in respective states. In Tamil Nadu, there is a counter a Chennai – TNagar (Venkat Narayana Road) where you can go individually and book tickets. As they take your finger print and photo, it’s mandatory that you go in person. I have no information regarding other states but this kind of facility should be there in all states I guess.
- This is also for people who plan very well in advance. There is an online facility for booking various darshan tickets (Many types of darshans are available according to time and special dates). But the problem with this is you need to book two months in advance as it gets filled very rapidly.
- This is for people who plan with a month horizon. There are travel packages offered by state tourism development corporations which usually take care of your travel along with darshan. This works out to be a convenient one as we don’t need any finger prints or so for booking tickets.
- This is for people like me who make decision on the eleventh hour. As said above there is a counter for the day’s darshan which will open at 5 in the morning. There are several disadvantages associated with this. There will be a huge queue in front of you even if you go an hour earlier. This might be low during weekdays but during weekends the crowd will be humongous. You might get tickets at odd timings and also you need to go in person as they collect our finger print and photo. This can be an option if you are going individually or with a group of friends and not with your family.
The final one which I don’t want to mention but many would prefer is using influence of localities. If you have a friend or relative who knows people in Tiruamla-Tirupathi then he/she might be helpful a lot.
If ever you plan such a trip in future then I sincerely request you to go for any one of the above and don’t make the same mistake as I did.
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