A Religious Trip To Melkote and Srirangapatnam

Pleasant was the breeze when I put my first step on the fifth platform on the second Saturday of July for my second trip to the garden city. The last time, it was a different trip with meeting friends, visits to lal bagh, forum, Iskcon temple – all that a first-time visitor would do. This time, it was a planned visit – of course, we are men and we propose but what does god do? Infact, he had lots of mercy towards us that at the EOD we came home satisfied and saying – It happens, man!

I boarded the Mysore express on Friday night at the Chennai central and at 9.50 pm, it was on its way. All that I could do was read only one chapter of Chandilyan’s Yavana Rani before the lights went off. (And I didn’t get a chance to read that again in the next 2 days!). The train reached Bangalore city at 5.05 am and yes, I woke up on time. My dear friend (!?!) Prashanth told me the previous night that he would come to the station by atleast 5 a.m. I gave some respect to his words and started looking for his face as and when I got down. After few minutes of search that went in vain, I decided to call him and when I called him the fellow answered from SLEEP! His alarm had failed or he had been inert to the alarm. He then said he would come to the station within 20 minutes and asked me to get ready in the waiting room. Also I was to get tickets for four in a train to Mandya from where we had planned to reach Melkote. When I was waiting for my turn to get the tickets, I was thinking if we could catch the train without any delay. With these thoughts haunting, I went to the waiting room only to find a board that hung in front of the bathroom – “Renovation work in progress”. I brushed my teeth and waited for Prashanth and he came at about 6.15 – late by almost an hour! He became a bit tensed on seeing the board but took me to a place near the bus stand where I could get ready. (That it costs Rs.35 for 2 hours is a different story. He paid 50 and we forgot to collect the balance!) It was 7.30 when we reached the station and Vidhya and Gayathri had reached just then. The sad part is that we missed 2 trains then and the next one was at 10 am! (I had also lost my beltL). We decided to go by bus.

At Majestic we boarded a free bus to the Satellite Bus Station from where Mysore buses start. It was about 8.15 when we boarded a bus to Mandya. All the way, we were chatting about many things – right from Internet proxies (I was a spectator here) to the Vaishnavite classifications. When we reached Mandya bus station at about 10.40 we were dismayed to hear that the usual bus to Melkote had not come for hours. Not wanting to wait, we decided to finish Srirangapatnam first and from there go to Melkote. We had murmurs that we could have gone there straight without alighting at Mandya. This was God’s second disposal, I thought. Srirangapatnam was about a ½ hour drive from Mandya and we learnt that a bus starts to Melkote at 1.15 pm. We said to ourselves that we should reach on time. So PROPOSING, we went on a walk towards the Ranganathaswamy temple. On the way, we saw some monuments like the Jumma Masjid, Tipu’s dilapidated Lal Mahal (nothing was left of it!), place where his body was found etc and reached the temple within 10 minutes. While walking, there was an interesting argument between Gayathri and Prashanth about idol worship – I should say, both had some good points. I don’t remember who submitted to whom, we put that to rest when we reached the temple. And well, maybe we were in HIS place, he didn’t dispose things now for we had a vvv good Darshan of the deity – Lord Ranganatha. He is almost a replica of Ranganatha of Srirangam. We came out satisfied with the Darshan that made us pose for a few snaps and ready for some Ilaneer – (tender coconut). Did we lose time here or at the place where we enjoyed watching Cauvery flowing? Yes, God’s disposal for the third time shone when we gave out a sigh at the bus stand. The bus to Melkote had gone just then!!

Someone said that buses going to Tumkur would stop at a place called Jagnahalli (don’t know if my sound is correct!) from where Melkote was nothing but 4 kms. So, our next wait was for a bus to Tumkur which we got as a reward for our ½ hour patience. Jagnahalli was a 40 minute drive and it was about 2.45 when we reached that place. There too, we saw the share-auto culture. When the whole auto was full, it started off and reached Melkote within 15 minutes. The whole day (till then) we had not had proper food and though all of us were hungry and went to a small hotel (we cannot expect a good one and we didn’t!), it was me and Prashanth who ordered for some food. The girls didn’t want to take risks as they didn’t want to miss what they were contemplating from the morning – Dinner at their PG that had been ordered outside. Another Proposal, say! After finishing our lunch (?) – Food, we made a move towards the temple where we met Balaji, his mother and his grand-father. The temple opened at about 4 pm and well, again, this place being HIS, we worshipped him to our fullest satisfaction. Lord THIRUNARAYANAN (The Moolavar) was majestic standing. We also had a very good Darshan of the Utsavar – Sampath Kumar (Selva Pillai in Tamil). We were actually standing very close to the deity which is less imaginable in Srirangam. A Darshan of Thayaar – Yadugiri Nachiar/ Kalyani Nachiar, we went for a second Darshan of the lord. That was it. That was what I wanted to do for long; that was what I went for and that was what I got.

Our next step was to walk the hill that houses the abode of Sri YogaNarasimha. Before that we had a Darshan of Lord Vinayaka carved out of a single piece of rock. Then started our act of climbing the steps. We were made to petrify that the steps would be so steep, but our fears vanished into thin air when we started climbing the steps. I guess, we should have counted about 200 steps to reach the temple. The gates of this temple opened at 6 and some good number of people had turned out then. Once again, very good Darshan. A couple of snaps and we started down.

Bangalore beckoned us to come home! Legs tired, not wanting to wait, we boarded a bus that took us to a place called Chilkoli (?). From here, we got a bus to Srirangapatnam and it was 8 pm when we reached there. Few minutes of wait, we got a bus to Bangalore and it was about 11.15 pm when we got down at Majestic.

That was a very much tired trip but eventually a satisfied one.

All though this write-up, I have been saying that god kept disposing off our plans. Some might see that statement as a pessimistic way of describing things. Even if none feel so, I admit that I started feeling it that way. So. Let me put up some more words before concluding. It is true that we faced hard luck right from the start. We planned to catch the train – did we reach the station on time? We missed the bus at Srirangapatnam by a whisker – had we taken one snap less, we might have had a different story. So, next time, when it comes, I am sure we would plan well and execute well and have God nothing to dispose.

Thanks for your time. Keep Smiling.