True Tales that are Stranger than Fiction!!

When I sort of hung my boots and left active work life in May 2011, I was pretty sure that I would have immense time to pursue my new found hobby as a blogger. Each day, I used to have a conversation in my own mind that tomorrow would be a better day to sit down and seriously make an attempt at writing. The justifications my mind presented were so convincing that I kept patronizing and never got down to writing.

The family’s visit to the temple town of Lord Venkateshwara at Tirumala in July’12 made me quickly pen a few paragraphs. This post received good feedback from friends and acquaintances and I was hopeful that the Lord had finally given me the much needed push. Well, to cut a long story short, it was just that I had indeed been procrastinating pretty well; the divine intervention had nothing to do with my laziness factor!!

But surprisingly, it was a pilgrimage trip to Sringeri Sharadamba’s abode in Oct’12 that did the trick. Although a faint memory, now that we have moved three months into the future, what stands out is the connection between this trip of ours and the previous one undertaken some fifteen years back. It must have been 1995 or 96, when we decided to travel by our first car – a navy blue Maruthi 800. Just as we were entering the outskirts of Kunigal town on Bangalore – Hassan highway, my younger son pointed the dashboard meter showing the engine temperature. It took me a couple of seconds to comprehend what was odd in the meter reading! In unison, both my sons said that the pointer was standing steady at ‘H’ and not the usual midway between ‘C’ & ‘H’!! It was a deserted highway with no possibility of help if the engine were to cease – that it hadn’t was in itself a miracle. We decided to take a chance and keep driving till we could find some help. We were lucky to hit a petrol bunk which had service/washing facilities. The attendant/mechanic first cooled the engine down in a phased manner and then made an attempt to check what could have gone wrong. We found absolutely nothing wrong…but not wanting to push our luck further, and much to the disappointment of the family, it was decided that we should head home.

Back safely in Bangalore I left the car at RNS Motors in Yeshwantpur for a couple of days to enable them find out what had gone wrong. It was quite surprising when nothing untoward was reported at the time of taking delivery of the car. Assuming that this was a one-off aberration…I let go of any stray thoughts, including the corny ones about God being unwilling or having helped us avert a major disaster/accident.

Fast forward into the future, fifteen years later, the same foursome team in a completely different car that was seemingly fit as a fiddle we encountered an identical problem, this time much beyond the ISRO city Hassan. My wife was in a way pretty convinced that providence had something to do with a second and identical incident. It appeared that the Goddess was indeed sending us a warning signal. The threesome team - both my boys and myself, were however willing to take some calculated chance. Also, I did not want my wife to carry on with a belief that some superior force was behind all this! We continued our journey and I kept a continuous and watchful eye on the temperature indicator. What helped was switching off the air conditioning system and running the car on neutral on a downward incline or flat stretches. In spite of the set-back we did reach the temple town of Sringeri only an hour behind schedule. We got the car checked for any problem, but like the last time, there was apparently nothing amiss. As a precaution we kept a liter of engine coolant handy and kept topping the can as we traveled from Sringeri to Hornadu to keep our date with Goddess Annapoorneshwari. On the return leg we took a detour and spent a night at Vihangama Holiday Resort in Tirthahalli.

Without air conditioning it was mightily warm and humid for the inmates; however the engine behaved very well and did not give us any more cause for worry. At best and on hindsight, I thought that the Omni-present superior power did have a role to play – quite clearly, it made its presence known to all of us and we are eternally grateful for the kindness and blessings showered on us.

New Year Greetings!!

If there is one thing I like…it is finding a common thread that binds diverse subjects together. I am sure most of you, if not all would have admired, perhaps liked or loved seeing the movie ‘Jurassic Park’ and hope that you know that it was Michael Crichton who wrote that thriller.

Michael Crichton was born on 23^rd October 1942, just under a year after US joined the war (World War II) on 7^th December 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Standing tall at 6’ 9” he indeed made a mark as a best-selling author, producer, director and screen writer. He is best known for his work in science fiction, medical fiction and thrillers. In 1994, he became the only creative artist ever to have been a No. 1 in Television (ER), Film (Jurassic Park) and Book sales (Disclosure).  A graduate of Harvard Medical school, he never obtained a license to practice medicine and preferred devoting himself to a writing career. Two novels brought him immense fame as a writer: The Andromeda Strain & The Great Train Robbery which were later adapted into film.

Just the other day, I was a bit early for a meeting in Café Coffee Day at Barton Center and instead of aimlessly walking around the MG road boulevard, I decided to spend some time browsing at ‘Bookworm’ – it is undoubtedly one of the best places to get your pick of a 2^nd hand book in Bengaluru. I picked up Michael Crichton’s ‘Five Patients’ and my all-time favorite author A J Cronin’s ‘The Citadel’. This novel of A J Cronin was adapted into a Hindi film in the year 1971 by Dev Anand and his elder sibling Vijay Anand – ‘Tere Mere Sapne.’ Literally translated from Hindi to English, it stands for ‘Our Dreams’. While the novel can be read innumerable times, the Hindi movie adaptation can but be seen just once; that kind-off summarizes the difference between a ‘best-seller’ and ‘an also-ran’.

Coming back to where I started…there is an interesting piece of information on Massachusetts General Hospital in Michael Crichton’s book ‘Five Patients.’ Mostly familiar as ‘Mass General’ or ‘MGH’, it is the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Named the No. 1 Hospital in the US in 2012 by US News & World Report, this hospital is the 3^rd oldest in the history of US having been established in 1811. Only Pennsylvania Hospital (1751) and New York – Presbyterian Hospital (1771) are older.

Altogether the hospital had 1,000 beds in 1967; this figure stands marginally higher at 1,057 today, but what stands out is the efficiency with which patients are treated:

1.      16,000 operations were performed by the surgical staff in 1967. Today, it stands at 34,000.

2.      27,000 patients were admitted in 1967; Today, it is 45,000.

3.      Research budget has gone up from 10.5 Million USD in 1967 to more than 500 Million USD now.

However, what probably stands out are the stats of our own AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences). It is a teaching and research hospital and came into existence only in 1956 through an Act of Parliament – it is nowhere near the 201 years of Mass General’s existence.

1.      150,000 operations are performed by the surgical staff yearly.

2.      160,000 patients are admitted in a year; no. of beds: 2,424.

3.      Research budget: Funding is mostly through grants and from collaboration with overseas institutions, and can never match the figures of Mass General, I suppose!

Every word and every institution has a story to tell; and so is the word ‘hospital.’ It is derived from the Latin hospes, meaning host or guest and the same root has given us “hotel” and “hostel.” In fact the evolution of hospital has been going on for more than two thousand years, beginning with the ‘Aesculapia’ of Greece around 350 BCE (Before Christian Era) taking the form of temples. The Aesculapian temples were not so much hospitals as religious institutions where patients came on pilgrimages, hoping to be cured by a visitation of the gods.

The hospital in the more modern sense began in late Roman times, and coincided with the spread of Christianity across Europe. Medicine was practiced by monks and priests. The Renaissance and Reformation loosened the Church’s stronghold on both the hospital and conduct of medical practice. St. Bartholomew’s hospital (also known as ‘Barts’), London’s first hospital was established in 1123, while its associated medical college was established in 1843. However, the first school to be granted official charter for medical teaching in 1785 was the London Medical College Hospital. Those of you who like trivia…here is one on Barts: Dr. Watson – Sherlock Holmes’s companion and biographer, first meet in the pathology laboratory at Barts and, Dr. Watson is its fictional alumni.

Well, so much about hospitals, Michael Crichton and his book ‘Five Patients’…if you get an opportunity, please read this book – it is a ‘must-read’ for anyone associated with the medical world or otherwise.

When I set out to write a few words to all my friends as a welcoming new year message, little did I imagine that it would get this big. I hope you make yourself some time to read this piece, either today or tomorrow, which incidentally, has the unique distinction of being a year apart!!

As we end the year today, I wish to quote from Sai Baba’s message to his devotees: “The second is the very basic unit of Time which we measure, in what we designate as a year. Sixty seconds, make a minute, sixty minutes make an hour, twenty four hours constitute a day and thirty days make a month; twelve months pass and we say a year has passed! When twelve months are over, we come back again to the first in the list of months, and call it the New Year Day. We go on a spree to celebrate the occasion.

Really speaking, nothing new has happened on the “New Year Day” - it is not the year, but every second that follows the present that is new. Hence, do not wait for the celebration of something new in Time, until minutes, hours, days, months and years add up! Celebrate the immediately succeeding second, and every one after it, through honest effort and attain everlasting joy. Do not waver in your determination to live in joy and peace.”

With warm regards and here's wishing you all Happiness, Success and Good Health in the year ahead!!

Govinda, Govinda, Govindaa

The very thought of traveling to the temple town of Tirumala on the Venkatadri hills brings along an unknown excitement and at the same time a wee bit of fear too. What if we do not get a chance to make it to his abode! While we are self-invited guests to his home, isn’t it strange that we see nothing wrong in expecting the best form of treatment and wait for those fleeting few seconds when we finally get to make an eye contact with him – the over powering sense of relief makes one feel weightless and as if we are floating freely in space!

Transcending all the known barriers, it feels that we are one with him. The sense of satisfaction that we have told him all that we wanted to and that he has patiently heard you out is a private dialogue that can happen only between you and him! But surprisingly, the long list of wants that you entered his home with now seems so trivial and soon forgotten. The sheer ecstasy drives away the agony of the long wait!

You are soon jolted out of the trance by the professional pushers who seem to be saying – okay, you had your chance and now let the next one get his! The Japanese Pushers, whose work is to push people into the railway cars during peak hour pale in comparison to the home grown pilgrim pushers in TTD.

Situated in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, Tirupathi is the most ancient pilgrimage center in India. The town owes its existence to the sacred temple of Lord Sri Venkateswara situated on the Tirumala Hill adjoining it. With a history of its present structure dating back to over twelve centuries, the temple is considered as the jewel in the crown of ancient places of worship in southern India.

The Tirumala Hill is 3200 ft above sea level, and is about 27 square KM’s in area. It comprises seven peaks, representing the seven hoods of Adisesha, thus earning the name, Seshachalam. The seven peaks are called Seshadri, Neeladri, Garudadri, Anjanadri, Vrishabhadri, Narayanadri and Venkatadri. The sacred temple of Sri Venkateswara is located on the seventh peak, Venkatadri, and lies on the southern banks of Sri Swami Pushkarini.

It is the 2nd richest temple after Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple at Tiruvanthapuram, but the most visited holy place in the world today.

Significantly, the temple was maintained and upgraded by various kingdoms namely The Pallavas of Kanchipuram (9th century AD), the Cholas of Tanjore (10th century), and Vijayanagara pradhans (14th and 15th centuries), who were committed devotees of Lord Venkateswara. The temple gained most of its current wealth and size with donations of diamond and gold by the Vijayanagar emperors. Gold for the inner shrine roofing to be gilded was provided by Sri Krishna Deva Raya the then ruler of Vijayanagar empire. Interestingly, it was Sri Ramanujacharya, the reformer and Vaishnavite saint  who in the 12th century laid down a comprehensive system of organization and management of worship. The principles and the method of worship to be followed have survived to this day in Tirumala.

We, as a family have always preferred APTDC’s package trip to the temple town as the service is prompt and each section or part of the journey happens like clockwork. This time though, we had some surprise in store! The start from home was pretty auspicious with nothing untoward happening and so was the bus journey from Bangalore APTDC’s Race Course pick-up point. The bus itself was a beauty – a swanky new Mercedes Benz rear engine air conditioned bus. With 15 seats going abegging, we hoped it would be similar at Tirumala’s notorious Q’s at the temple gates. The first hint about how things would shape up came our way just as the elevator doors shut to take us to the 4th floor in the Transit accommodation provided by TTD. The Lord may have taken pity and forgiven us poor souls, but not this elevator. With 2 persons too many, it groaned to an abrupt halt midway between the 2nd and 3rd floor causing some kind of panic. We had to remain locked in its confines for a good 15 minutes before help finally arrived. From his instructions that were faintly audible to us, we realized he was a novice – a green horn, to be more apt. Lucky for us, he had apparently worked on MS Windows and ended up doing what all of us do. Yes, re-Boot!! He switched off the power supply, gave it some time for the memory in the elevator control circuit to erase and then switched on. The elevator descended to the ground floor like a charm – we heaved a sigh of relief from the temporary set back, climbed all the way up to the 4th floor and hurried to our respective rooms to freshen up to embark on the next leg of the journey.

Being a Friday, we were told that a visit to Padmavathy temple would take place first at Tirupathi and later we would be transported to the hill-top town of Tirumala by TTD operated link bus, in time for the 8:30 AM darshan. We were assured that the entire duration would not last more than an hour. And so, off we went to Padmavathy temple in suburban Tirupathi – Alamelumangapuram. It was 4:30 AM and Aarthi had just then concluded post the morning panchamrutha seva. A couple of guys were shouting at the gate for us to hurry up, else the doors would be closed for the ‘Alankara’. Our guide, incidentally was also ‘Srinivasa’ – not a God send, but it was as if God had himself descended on earth to take care!! He got us special tickets which allowed us a fairly good amount of time in front of Goddess Padmavathy. With time to spare, we for the first time got some time to look around the temple complex and visit the sub-temples of Sri Krishna Swamy, Sri Sundararaja Swamy and Sri Suryanarayana Swamy.

The gateway to the 7-Hills is called Alipiri and somewhere close to this starting point we disembarked from our luxurious Mercedes Benz and jumped into a waiting Link Bus operated by TTD. Each time we visit Tirumala, I wonder why the TTD Board has not thought of getting a complete new fleet of buses. Most of the existing ones seem to have outlived their extended lives and I am sure if they send a word to the major engine & chassis manufacturers, they will fall all over each other to oblige; who knows they may even give the Board a discount with the hope that they pass on a message to the good Lord and earn a few brownie points for themselves. Well, jokes apart, the engine condition and the brakes are maintained immaculately and there is no reason for any doubt about safety of these buses shipping people up and then down, 24/7.

As we were steadily climbing our way through the 7-hills I tried recollecting what I had heard and read about this unique temple. There are innumerable ancient references to the deity and the purifying hill, in fact  even before the advent of the deity. They date back to the Rig-Veda period. Some described only the purifying hill, others mentioned the Lord who absolves sins and presides over the hill, but not any temple. The puranas refer to the Tirumala hill as Venkatadri or Venkatachala. The longest epic in the world, the Mahabharata describes the transformation of the departed spirit of Sri Krishna into a lifeless four armed image which was to descend to earth and be worshiped in Kaliyuga. This is believed to be the Tirumala deity – one of the eight Swayam Vyakta Sthala. In the hierarchy of structures, Swayam Vyakta Kshetras stands at the peak amongst the 5 categories. The other 4 in their descending order are: Deva, Arsha or Sidha, Pauranika and Manusha. The difference is based on who installed the deity in a given temple. The images installed by divinities like Brahma, Indra etc are known as Deva sthala. Similarly, images installed by great sages are known as arsha sthala and ones by sidhas are known as Sidha sthala. Images installed in the ancient days and as mentioned in the epics are known as Pauranika sthala. Images installed by devout human beings are known as Manusha sthala.

The main idol in Tirumala is believed to be of divine origin – Sri Krishna manifests himself by his own free will as the Archavatara or the image fit to be worshipped, in Tirumala, the Swayam Vyakta Sthala. The other 7 Sthalas are Srirangam, Srimushnam, Totaparvatam, Salagramam in Nepal, Pushkaram, Badrinath and Naimisham. It is believed that in Kaliyuga, one can attain mukti only by worshiping Sri Venkateswara. The benefits acquired by pilgrimage to Vankatachala are mentioned in the Rig Veda too. The following is an interesting connection between the astronomical, the physiological and the spiritual : Kaliyuga as told in our puranas is a period that will last 432,000 years, with the beginning of this era suggested as 3012 BC. According to Hindu tradition, the Rigvedic hymns were collected by Paila under the guidance of Vyasa who formed the Rigveda Samhita as we know it.  According to the Sataptha Brahmana the number of syllables in the Rigveda is 432,000, equaling the number of muhurtas (1 day = 30 muhurtas) in forty years. Is this a mere coincidence or was this by design – The Almighty God can surely throw some light!!

If I stretch my memory, I must have visited the Tirumala Sri Venkateswara temple just twice before my marriage. The first was for the twin celebrations: my thread ceremony followed by my eldest sister’s marriage in the February 1975. This was when we experienced the Lord indeed to be ‘The Supreme’. My father had decided for himself that he would get my ‘Thread Ceremony’ done  at Tirumala. With the muhurtham falling on 16th Feb’75 and my sisters marriage the following day, there was little or no scope for my parents to arrange one event in Tirumala and the next one at Bangalore. My father took the step of getting both the events organized at Tirumala and it meant a considerable hike in budget along with logistical woes. All plans were made for the entire family, friends and relatives to travel from Mysore on 14th Feb’75. With just 5 days to go, mysteriously, both my sister and me fell sick with high fever and delirium. No medicine, Allopathic or Ayuvedic was able to ascertain the problem, let alone cure us from this unknown malady.

It was my maternal grandfather – Sri S Vittala Shastrigal, who attained Sanyasatva as Sri Sri Gyanananendra Saraswati Swamigal, accidentally discovered the seemingly moot cause!! He called my mom aside and asked her a direct question: “Did you harbor a doubt or a negative feeling about the two events being done at Tirumala?” When my mother answered in the affirmative, he made her pray for forgiveness and request the lord for helping her and my father to conduct the two events without an impediment. It is believed that if the remorse is genuine, the Lord readily forgives. Miraculously, this paved the way for a dramatic recovery for both of us and we were able to successfully complete all the rituals unhindered. To this day we hold this shrine and Lord Venkateswara in awe and always remember that if we make a promise to him, we had better keep it.

In the last 27 years I have personally made three promises…the first was to pay my respects to him just before my marriage. In my own recorded history, this was perhaps the best visit. It had rained continuously for more than 36 hours before our scheduled arrival at Tirupathi and very few link buses were plying between Tirupathi and Tirumala. When we did get one and arrived at the main entrance, we found that the temple wore a deserted look with not many people around. Fearing the worst, we presumed that the temple gates would be shut down because of the heavy downpour. We hesitatingly approached the counter for special tickets and to our dismay found even that to be shut. Upon approaching a TTD official, we were told that the doors of the temple were wide open for any devotee willing to walk in. Could we have asked for anything better? Undoubtedly not!! We, my second brother-in-law and I jumped up with joy and went into the innermost Sanctum Sanctorum. We were shocked with a pleasant surprise when the purohits asked us to stay longer as we were turning to retrace our steps!!

The second promise was to get my elder son’s Tonsuring ceremony done at Tirumala. The most recent one was the third major promise when my second son had completed his final semester examinations. We had not made a special trip to Tirumala when my elder son graduated and I felt it would be nice to make a foursome trip as part of ‘Thanksgiving.’ In between of course we have made many trips and thanks to the promises of my better half, who is an ardent devotee of Sri Lakshmi Venkateswara.

By 6:30 AM we were at the temple gates and a good 2 hours to go before the ‘Q’ would be opened up for the devotees on the package trip. As we patiently waited at the main entrance, we could see thousands of people rushing in with special passes and that was when in my mind, I began to panic…what if, we are denied an entry? The human brain is amazingly wired to think of ‘n’ number of ‘what if’ situations create a sense of panic and press the alarm button to make all other organs go on an overdrive! I tend to develop cold feet very easily when it comes to Lord Venkateswara; I guess it stems from the past experience.

As soon the ‘Q’ opened up and we all rushed in, we discovered to our dismay that we were led into an enclosed space known as the ‘cage’. We were all made to live the life of a convict, albeit for a short while. Luck did play a role and the waiting period was just 15 minutes – the gates were thrown open and we got into the labyrinth of passages that finally led us to the sanctum sanctorum. All the anxiety and panic our minds had conjured simply vanished the moment we got a glimpse of the awe inspiring and flower bedecked Lord of our world. The relief, the joy, the happiness at having finally made it was simply overwhelming. The power and sheer positive energy can only be experienced as one stands in front of the Lord with folded hands. Only later did I realize that the only two words that I could softly utter to the Lord was a ‘Thank You’…A Promise made and a Promise kept!!