Life certainly has its own twists and turns. Things catch us so much by surprise that one can’t help but smile in some of those experiences, despite the twists and turns and surprises.

Just a few  days back, we were in a conversation with the person who we reach out to, for conducting rituals and functions in our family, our vAdhiyar (priest) as we call him. We were discussing about SaranAgati (surrendering) to the supreme power (almighty / bhagawAn / universe, as one may term as), a topic that always raises many a question in me.. While he shared many insights, what I took away from his reponses was – we need to be with the flow with what’s happening and whatever happens as outcome, we accept it.

If what he said was doing its loops constantly since our conversation with him, a couple of experiences in the last couple of days, seemed to nod its head in agreement. As I write this blog, I am still in those experiences and literally in awe..

– Why do we experience certain situations?

– Are they to teach us something because they just like that don’t happen?

– Do they happen for us to learn from it?

– We may not know what they are meant to teach us but we may certainly learn something out of it?

– What they are meant to teach and what we learn, is it the same or different?

There are no answers to these questions but guess we need to just be with the flow and experience these situations.. and take the outcomes as they come.

A few of us family members were on a trip to the temple in Tirupathi (Sri Padmavathy Ammavari temple) and Thirumala (Sri Venkateswara Swamy temple). There are certain do’s and dont’s for entry into both these temples; and those of us who visit these temples with a certain frequency are more often than not, aware of these do’s and dont’s. What was a revelation to us was the extent to which processes are followed!!

Knowing very well that electronic gadgets aren’t allowed in the temple, we ensure we don’t carry them when we go to both the temples. The day we visited the temple at Tirupathi, I didn’t want to carry my handbag but we also didn’t want to leave it in the car; and so I took it along. When the bag was kept in the scanning machine for it to be scanned, one of the personnel asked me if I had any electronic gadgets in the bag. I, with super confidence said no because I was sure I wasn’t carrying my phone. On seeing the images of the contents in my bag, in the scanner, she asked me to open my bag and show. When I did it, is when I realised that I had kept my kindle in my handbag. She asked me what it was and I told her it is a digital book and I can’t make any calls or take any pictures with it. She asked me to show it to her supervisor. He looked at it and said, it is like an ipad / tab and I could deposit at their deposit counters and collect it after the darshan.I am like – “This is neither an ipad or a tab but a digital book. Pls see.” In a tone that brooked no arguments, he said “Deposit cheyyandi (pls deposit it).” The girl who checked my bag asked me to show my palm and stamped something on it (I tried reading it but couldn’t figure out and didn’t have the presence of mind to ask her either). She told me where I needed to go to deposit it and where to come back and join the line, while the other family members waited at the same spot. Impressive following of the process protocols by the personnel!!

To go to the deposit counter, I needed to walk on scalding hot roads. I knew which counter I had to go to but didn’t know exactly where it was and knew barely a fistful of words in Telugu. As I walked, after every few shops (that were aplenty) I would ask “Deposit counter?” and they would tell me the answer. Seriously, communication is beyond languages!!

Though there was a running patch of white heat proof paint on the road for pedestrians not to feel the heat while walking, some of the patches had worn off; and in some running patches a car was parked, which meant that I needed to walk on the scalding hot road. Whew, that was hard. It wasn’t just the little pebbles and stones that the feet feels but the heat as well.

After about five minutes of 5 minutes of walk, I reached the deposit counter, only to find a big line of people, all waiting to deposit their electronic gadgets. After a good 45 minutes, got to the counter to deposit my Kindle, collected a slip and left for the temple again. Well laid out process and followed to a T!!

This time, I took to a sprint with all excitement and joy of completing something that was so new to me, in a place and language I barely had knowledge of. When I showed my stamped hand to the person at the entry gate, he asked me if I had deposited the phone and then allowed me inside. I joined the family to have darshan of Sri Padmavathy Ammavari.

If I thought this experience was crazy, the next one was even more so..

Where was the second one? At the entry point for the darshan at the Tirumala temple.

This darshan ticket came with an accommodation. One can choose to stay in the accommodation that came with it or at another accommodation of one’s choice. Preferable to carry a print out of all the receipts we have, associated with this trip, when we make one – especially when we go for a darshan, given that electronic gadgets including mobile phones are not allowed to be carried inside the temple.

For all of us family members in the trip, Tirupati and Tirumala holds a special place in our heart. With a bounce in our step we stepped in to the ticket checking point for our darshan.  The person checking the darshan receipt tickets was doing his diligent scrutiny of it. He said “Sir, idhu accomodation receipt. Darshan receipt ekkada? (This is the accommodation receipt, where is the darsan receipt?). That was when we realised that we were  carrying two copies of the accomodation receipt instead of one accommodation recipt and one darshan receipt ticket.

He was very particular that he can’t give us entry without the darshan receipt. All he said was that we have some time for this particular darshan time to get over and we could hurry to wherever we were staying and get the print out, if we had taken it. Yet another impressive process protocol followed!!

Me being me, offered to go and get the darshan receipt tickets from the room we were staying in. Some of my family members offered to come with me while the others waited. Since Krishnan (my husband) was a part of another group with a different darshan receipt ticket, he coudn’t come with me. Appa (my father) offered but the personnel at the entrace took me a liitle aside and very sweetly said, “Madam, he will walk slowly and you will get late. You go with the other person (my cousin).” I was tempted to tell him that ladies too can do all this running around by themselves. I decided not to pick this as a battle and certainly this wasn’t the time to do so. Sensible call!!

My cousin who had also offered to come with me had a knee surgery and his gait had slowed down. Knowing that we had little time, I told my him to stay back and I hurried out of the place. On reaching the road which was a good three minute walk from the entry point, a cop standing there was of immense help in getting me a cab to take me to the place of our accommodation. How do I communicate to this driver who spoke only Telugu? My unashamed language speaking came to my rescue :-).. What a riotuos mix of languages in the few minutes of drive to and fro!!

I gave him the name of the place to go to and told him, “Ee placekku poyyali. (we have to go to this place). 5 minutes wait chayyali, ikkada drop cheyyali (wait for 5 minutes and drop me back here). He nodded his head and told me the fare. Communication over and out 🙂

Once I reached the room, I started my search for the photocopies, in the place where I was told it would be.

Did I find the darshan receipt? No..

Saw another bag and searched in it? Did I find it? No..

I realised that I was slowly getting worked up, with the thought of “They are all waiting in the queue with all eagerness to get darshan. What if I can’t find the darshan receipt? How will they feel? bla bla bla.” My thinking working overtime!! The per minute charges for this overthinking would be frustration and stress.. No no, thats not the need of the hour, was my response to myself. Meta cognition in place!! Impressive how our mind works, ain’t it!!

I remember stopping my search for a few moments and telling myself, “Relax Malu.Gather yourself first and search again.” I just closed my eyes and stood, thoughtless.

Resuming my serach, I saw another bag which had a few other things and when I peeped, voilà!!! The darshan ticket receipt announced its presence.. A mixed bag of feelings overcame me – relief, joy, tears, gratitude… Locking the room behind me, I rushed to the cab. The driver was all ready facing the direction he had to drive in. Very thoughtful of him!!

I got into the cab and told him, “Pick up point drop.” I wasn’t sure if he understood and looking back I don’t even know why I spoke this type of English to him. Maybe I thought lesser words means greater understanding? Anyway, I ensured that I used a Telugu word also to convey this again, “Pick up point drop cheyyali (drop me back at the pick up point)”. He nodded his head in aquiescence and did so too. Communication over and out..

To and fro in 20 nail biting minutes. Hearing their, “She is here” and seeing a huge relief and joy in all their faces, made all the effort worth it. We were on to our darshan after that. What stood out was the smile on the face of the personnel who gave me the guidance on what to do!! Shared joys!!

Whew!! What a memorable trip this was, in more ways than one!!

After an experience, I always say that we learn a lot about ourselves. After these two experiences, I can’t say I have learnt something specifically about myself. However…

I learnt that life doles out experiences where we just go with the flow. We don’t  think what needs to be done or what we want to do; nor is there time to plan. Things just happen.

When intuition is followed, spontaneity happens..

When spontaneity happens, the unpredicatble is embraced..

When unpredictability is embraced, we go with the flow..

We then ‘take pleasure and pain with equanimity, as though they are one and the same’ (karma yoga)!!

From intuition to karma yoga, what a connecting journey this trip has been!!