Trimula:
Meeting one's maker - while still alive - can be a trying process.
At Lord Balaji's temple in Tirumala, the lines are endless. On a good day and if someone has heard your prayers, it takes two hours to cover the distance from the entry point to the inner sanctum of the Lord of the Seven Hills. But on Monday, for example, it took up to 12 hours - students flocked here to seek blessings for their college admissions.
Sixty thousand visitors a day is now standard, a 20 per cent increase over last year. On special occasions, like Brahmotsavam, the Lord's visitors' book, if there were one, would register one lakh devotees.
"Day by day the rush is going up, not coming down and the infrastructure facilities in Tirumala are limited and there is also a limit beyond which it cannot be expanded," says a weary Krishna Rao, Executive Officer of the temple's trust.
The Trust is now considering adopting the Vaishno Devi model - regulating the arrivals downhill at Tirupati and then sending visitors up the mountain in batches.
Those standing in line weigh that option, and say it has drawbacks. "Coordination will be a lot more difficult. If you see it theory-wise, the batch-wise system looks very simple, sending 2000-3000 people at any given time. But there are people walking up the mountain, coming by car and bus. How do you manage them?" asks one visitor.
There have been, in the last few months, days when the wait extended for a full 24 hours. For now, traffic is controlled by segregating those who want to pay Rs 500 for a VIP darshan. A total of 27 different holding sections, or "compartments" as they're called by authorities, keep visitors in a sort of assembly line to the temple. Toilets and refreshments are provided. And in a new move this week, plastic water bottles were banned. While temple trustees say the temple is trying to be more eco-friendly, sources say there are also security concerns about the use of liquid bombs.
Planes and helicopters are banned from flying above the temple - partly out of religious protocol (nobody is higher than the Lord) and partly to prevent aerial attacks.
At Lord Balaji's temple in Tirumala, the lines are endless. On a good day and if someone has heard your prayers, it takes two hours to cover the distance from the entry point to the inner sanctum of the Lord of the Seven Hills. But on Monday, for example, it took up to 12 hours - students flocked here to seek blessings for their college admissions.
Sixty thousand visitors a day is now standard, a 20 per cent increase over last year. On special occasions, like Brahmotsavam, the Lord's visitors' book, if there were one, would register one lakh devotees.
"Day by day the rush is going up, not coming down and the infrastructure facilities in Tirumala are limited and there is also a limit beyond which it cannot be expanded," says a weary Krishna Rao, Executive Officer of the temple's trust.
The Trust is now considering adopting the Vaishno Devi model - regulating the arrivals downhill at Tirupati and then sending visitors up the mountain in batches.
Those standing in line weigh that option, and say it has drawbacks. "Coordination will be a lot more difficult. If you see it theory-wise, the batch-wise system looks very simple, sending 2000-3000 people at any given time. But there are people walking up the mountain, coming by car and bus. How do you manage them?" asks one visitor.
There have been, in the last few months, days when the wait extended for a full 24 hours. For now, traffic is controlled by segregating those who want to pay Rs 500 for a VIP darshan. A total of 27 different holding sections, or "compartments" as they're called by authorities, keep visitors in a sort of assembly line to the temple. Toilets and refreshments are provided. And in a new move this week, plastic water bottles were banned. While temple trustees say the temple is trying to be more eco-friendly, sources say there are also security concerns about the use of liquid bombs.
Planes and helicopters are banned from flying above the temple - partly out of religious protocol (nobody is higher than the Lord) and partly to prevent aerial attacks.
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