Prashanti Nilayam Visit

It was Thursday, when we got the notice that the college will reopen on Monday. We had not expected that South Indian will give leave for Holi. We knew Holi would not be interesting here, so we came up with the idea to get out of hostel and go somewhere near. The sad part of us was that we had traveled almost entire places to visit of South India, but not of our own state.

We had no idea if there were places to visit in Andhra Pradesh. So, we found this Prashanti Ashram, the Ashram where Sai Ram used to live, back when he was alive. We made up or plan within the night, and got prepared. Rusen, Susant, Puspa, Kshitiz bhai, and I, we took our breakfast and then left for Banglore.

Prayash Bhai joined us from Banglore.

Hijra’s

We made a wrong choice of going to Puttaparthi through train. It was cheap, but, we did not get seat to sit in the General class. We had to stand up for four hours of journey. Standing on train would be fine if the Hijra’s would not take our breath. One thing that we all forgot was to carry change of Rs 10, and we were frequently terrorized by them. Once we had our change over, we were really in fearful state. However, they didn’t come later. Once, they finished collecting from peoples, they came and talked to us explaining that we no way looked like Hindu. Does a face has to deal with religion? I wonder.

Rich Village

Once we got out of the railway station, we could clearly figure out that the village was seriously rich. There was airport, which is not in operation after the death of Baba. There was huge hospital, which looked like heritage site from out. We were amazed to see huge schools, high schools, graduate colleges in the name of Baba in the series.

 Strict Norms

What was interesting here was strict norms. I was in half pant, and they did not allow me to enter. I had to wear a pant above my half pant and then I could enter. They had timings there, and that was strictly followed. There was room, we wanted to stay, but since we were all  boys, we were not allowed to stay in the room of our own. We could stay in the dormitory, at cheaper price, but we thought it wise to stay outside the ashram in hotel.

Nepali Food

I would never imagine that there would be Nepali food, in Andhra Pradesh, if I would have not been here. We were at first happy to see Italian Dish thereby, and planned of taking burgers. But, we also found the board where it was written ‘South Indian, North Indian and Nepali Food’. Ahh!! That was awesome. Yes, we got the Nepali food, and we could talk in Nepalese language!

Stupidity for Momo

Yes, we found out that Nepali restaurants there, we asked if there were Momo’s too. They told yes! We were sure that buff would not be available there, so with the expectation of getting replied with Chicken, we asked,

K ko momo?

And they laughed and told, Veg!

No worries! We will taste it, and we came to know that entire place was a vegetarian. They were not allowed to sell anything non veg. That was something against the local norm there.

Lakeside of Pokhara or Thamel of Kathmandu?

The village was small, but there were roads like that of lakeside of Pokhara or Thamel of Kathmandu. The shops were of similar type, and we all compared with Thamel or Lakeside. Nepali style! One other reason for this was we could lot of tourists as well.

No specific religion

We had no idea, what is to be done, but when we are here, we have to see what happens. We woke up at 5 and went inside the Ashram. There was a huge crowd, we had no idea, we were not allowed to talk as well. So, they first did the prayer of Ganesh, and gradually large bunch of mass chanting holy songs went praying various other Gods too. Yeah’ I remember the voice was also saying ‘Allah Oh Akbar’. 

Tweeting

There were birds who were so natural in state, they were tweeting like we were listening to some recorded version. They were loud and clear, and we were confused if it was natural. Yes it was natural!

Puja

Then we were said to stay in line, we were in different lines. They then sent us to place where there was statue of Sriddi and Sai Ram, and the pujari did Puja for pretty long time there. We were not together, all we could do is stare at each other’s face.

Veda Chanting

We had no idea what this chanting thing was. We went and knew that the recorder would play some chanting, and we had to listen. Ahh, that was different experience.  Peoples around knew all lines by heart! That was amazing thing!

I remembered how my School Principal was great fan of Baba.  We then took our Nepali lunch. This time it was saag as well. And then we moved towards Banglore. Summer Love was being read by Achyut Ghimire in the ear.