I went to Tirumala Tirupati during 22-26 June 2024.
Here are some updates of this trip.
1. DARSHAN WAITING TIME
I booked the INR 300 Special Darshan ticket for Tirumala (aka Tirupati) Balaji Temple for 24 June 2024. It took 3 hours 40 minutes to get the darshan.
– Joined Queue: 645PM
– Ticket Scanned: 830PM
– Got Darshan: 10:25PM.
2. QUEUE BEFORE INR 300 SPECIAL DARSHAN BUILDING
As on my last visit, the gate to the INR 300 Special Darshan Building at ATC Circle was closed. Last time, I entered the building via a short queue but this time the line was long and it took a hour and a half just to reach the said building.
When our queue went past the main road near ATC Circle, some security guards saw us and asked us what we were doing there! We told them we were in the 300 rupees line. They telephoned someone and a gate was opened immediately to go through.
I can’t help wondering if some n00bs (interns?) diverted us into a nonstandard queue and forgot about it until somebody got the call from the aforementioned security guard and made the proverbial midcourse correction!
3. PAC-IV RENDEZVOUS
Back in the day, I used to take a taxi from my hotel in Tirupati to Tirumala and back. The cab would drop me at the entrance of queue complex and park at the nearby parking lot. Over time, ostensibly as a traffic management measure, cops started stopping the car farther and farther away from the queue complex and shooing away the driver to go park somewhere else. As a result, I had to walk a long distance to get to the queue complex and, on the way back, struggle to find out where my driver had parked (believe me, it’s not easy to find new places in a hill station, especially in the dark and without much signage).
Therefore, I stopped using a cab and started taking the APSRTC bus after that.
This time, I’d gone in a group and we had a car at our disposal for the whole trip, so we used it to go to Tirumala. Having made half a dozen trips to Tirumala during the past year, our driver was familiar with ATC Circle. Luckily, there were no barricades enroute ATC Circle and we could go right up to the queue complex, unlike many times in the past.
For the return trip, I showed the driver the COMMON LUGGAGE COLLECTION CENTER (PAC-IV) building. Since it’s a prominent building, I figured that it’d be easy for both the driver and me to find. Since it’s on the main road, I guessed that cops won’t block the cab from driving right up to it (which can’t be said about many inner roads). After finishing the darshan, I anyway had to come to this building to collect my mobile phone (which I submitted at the INR 300 Special Darshan Building ). So the plan was to call the driver and ask him to come to PAC-IV instead of me trying to figure out where he’d parked. This “best practice” worked perfectly and I plan on adopting it during my future trips (God Willing!).
(Some others who left their mobile phone in their cars in the past shared another hack: As soon as they finish their darshan and exit the temple, they request the security guard or shopkeeper in the shopping complex to place the call to the driver from their mobile phones. If you’re planning to follow this “best practice”, just remember to write down the driver’s number on a piece of paper that you can carry with you during darshan instead of saving it on your mobile phone that you cannot!).
4. STAGGERED QUOTA
Unlike in the past, the seva and darshan quota release on TTD ticket booking website was staggered this year. The seva quota was released first and the darshan quota was released almost a month later. As a result, when the seva quota was released, I didn’t know whether I’d get darshan ticket for the same day as seva (I wouldn’t have, as I found out when the darshan ticket quota was released later), so I refrained from booking a seva ticket.
5. PAN CARD WORKED!
While booking the INR 300 Special Darshan Ticket, I’d selected Aadhaar Card as the ID artefact for all of our group members. However, one of them had only brought their PAN card along. Thankfully, it went through at the ticket scanning counter without any problem. This is in contrast with my past visits when I’ve seen the ticket scanning clerks throwing out pilgrims for mismatch in the ID artefact.
I also found a supervisor in the scanning center to address ID-related disputes. This is a good thing. While the ID check was enforced rigorously to prevent touts from reselling darshan tickets on the black, which used to happen back in the day, it’d be a mini tragedy if, after taking all the trouble to book the ticket months in advance and spending all the time and money to make the trip, a genuine pilgrim is deprived of darshan just because they entered Aadhaar Number on the ticket booking website and brought their PAN card on the day of darshan.
6. ROAD CLOSURE
I’ve always known that the road between Tirumala and Tirupati is closed for three hours in the night. I thought the shutdown was during 1AM-4AM. I found out the hard way this time that it happened from 12Midnight to 3AM.
By the time we finished our darshan, collected laddoos from the Laddoo Complex, did some light shopping, reached PAC-IV building, collected my mobile phone, called our cab, and reached the exit gate of Tirumala, it was 1230AM and the road had been shut for over 30 minutes.
We came back into town, found a restaurant that was still open (more on that later), had dinner, and hung around outside the restaurant till 3AM. Luckily, it was neither too warm nor cold, and we could survive out in the open for a hour and a half.
7. NEW RESTAURANTS
In addition to the above restaurant that was open so late, I saw many new restaurants in Tirumala during this visit. I also saw some fancy guest houses. My driver told me that there are even three and four star hotels in Tirumala now. I also saw a branch of HDFC Bank in Tirumala. Although branches of Vijaya Bank and a couple of other public sector banks have been around in Tirumala for decades, this is the first time I’m seeing the branch of a private sector bank.
Last I checked, Tirumala was fully owned and administered by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) and all property on the hill was owned by TTD.
Not sure whether these private hotels and banks are now allowed to own property in Tirumala or they’re leasing it from TTD.
8. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IN TECH
On nearly every one of my trips to the Tirumala Balaji Temple over the past 30 years or so, I’ve spotted some improvement in the use of technology to manage the pilgrim / darshan experience. This time was no exception.
In the past, whenever I handed over my mobile phone at the INR 300 Special Darshan Building, I’d get a handwritten receipt that was barely legible. This time, the attendant had a handheld device, which he used to scan the QR code on the ticket, automatically prefill the pilgrim name and mobile phone number, and click my picture. This way, if I lost the receipt in the hustle bustle of the darshan line and somebody else picked it up, they won’t be able to make away with my mobile phone from the PAC-IV building.
Kudos to TTD for yet another smart use of technology.
9. US STYLE PHONE NUMBER
My cab driver told me his mobile phone number was 123 456 7890. This dissonates with the Indian notation viz. 12345 67890. I asked him if he used the American style because tons of folks from Andhra Pradesh apparently emigrate to USA every year. He was clueless about my question but told me that everybody in his circle uses the xxx-xxx-xxxx pattern.
I took this as Exhibit A of how far and wide American soft power had spread inside AP.
My feeling was reinforced upon my return when I read a news item in the Times of India that Telugu speakers in USA jumped 4-fold, from 3.2 lakhs in 2016 to 12.3 lakhs in 2024.
10. CHAOTIC CROWD CONTROL
Like last time, pushing and shoving started right at the entrance of the Rs. 300 Special Darshan queue and went on right till the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum of the main temple. But, this time, it also extended to the Laddoo Complex – of the 50+ counters in the complex, hardly five were staffed.
I’m increasingly wondering if the chaos is actually a feature rather than a bug.
11. TTD BUREAUCRACY
Since online payments for eHundi have consistently failed in the past, I’ve been writing a cheque and dropping it into the Srivari Hundi placed just outside the sanctum sanctorum. Once my cheque came back torn! Since then, I’ve been sending my donation cheques by courier.
This time, I went in person to the TTD Administration Building (KT Road) to hand over the cheque. Since others in my group were waiting in the car outside, I looked for a letter box where I could conveniently drop the envelope and move on. There wasn’t any. The security guard directed me to the dispatch section in another building. The clerks there asked me to open the envelope. I did that. They saw the cheque and told me to issue a covering letter. This was when I gave up with the height of TTD’s redtape. I brought the envelope back and couriered it to the same address!
On a side note, when online payments for darshan and seva tickets have always worked fine (knock on wood!), it’s a little intriguing why the ones for donations keep failing!
12. LANGUAGE PROBLEM
I’ve highlighted language problems at Tirumala in the past. But, this time, I faced them even at Tirupati e.g. Take away counter of Adyar Anand Bhavan (A2B) restaurant in Nandi Circle. The clerk who took my takeaway order could only speak Telugu, which is the local language in Tirupati. Whereas I could speak only English / Hindi / Tamil. Thanks to the resultant communication gap, my order was bungled.
13. AIRBNB V. BOOKING.COM
Except twice or thrice, I’ve always stayed at Hotel Bliss on all my previous trips to Tirupati. As usual, I sent an email seeking reservation of rooms (“rooms” in plural because we were a largish group). I got no reply. Which was very strange because, in the past, I’d always get a reply within the hour. I then learned from Booking.com website that Bliss has become a part of Indian Hotels Company Limited and is now called Ekanté Bliss, Tirupati – IHCL SeleQtions. While IHCL is the parent company of Taj Group of Hotels, I didn’t find any Taj-related branding in connection with Ekanté Bliss.
It then struck me that an AirBnB would be more convenient since we were in a large group that wouldn’t fit into a single hotel room, however large. So I headed over to AirBnB’s website, found a suitable apartment, which was also listed on Booking.com. While AirBnB insisted on full payment upfront, Booking.com permitted payment at the property at the time of checking out. Therefore, I made the booking on Booking.com.
As an aside, this is an example of a product that has its independent identity (TrueLife Homestays) and uses AirBnB only for distribution, just as it does Booking.com. This is unlike the standard AirBnB, which is both product and distribution channel.
14. AIRCONDITIONED ECONOMY
On the way back, I noticed that the coach before our AC 2 Tier coach was labeled as Air Conditioned Economy. This is the first I’m hearing of this class on Indian Railways trains (designated by the letter ‘M’). According to Google, M coaches have three side berths (in addition to six main berths). However, when I went to M1 and checked, I could spot only two side berths i.e. it looked exactly like AC 3 Tier (designated by ‘B’). Wonder what’s the real difference between B and M coaches?
My darshan went off well. As they say, all’s well that ends well.
