Andhra Pradesh

Moderate rush at Tirumala

By Our Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI. Jan. 1. The New Year rush which would normally exceed the 1 lakh mark in the hill temple of Lord Venkateswara was relatively low this year with the Tsunami tragedy also being one of the factors.

There was an apparent fall in the pilgrim influx from Tamil Nadu following the devastation caused to the State by the deadly quake. Bulk of the crowd every New Year is normally from Tamil Nadu especially the tsunami-affected Chennai. This factor coupled with the trail of gloom and the sombre atmosphere that the quake had triggered in its wake also appear to have forced the pilgrims to cancel their pilgrimage.

Low-key celebrations

In fact, the New Year celebrations also were on a low key this year in the temple city which normally used to be a good blend of fun the previous night and piety the next morning with the numerous temples dotting the city getting choked with pilgrims.

Against the normal 1 lakh plus crowd, the crowd this year according to initial estimates is expected to be around 60,000-70,000 and by noon rather unusually there was a thin crowd in the queues. Another reason cited for the low-turn out is that a good many of the pilgrims, in their bid to beat the New Year rush, had advanced their visit to Vaikunta Ekadasi last week. There was such a deluge of pilgrims and it took nearly 70 hours for the pilgrims to get their darshan.

Picturesque shrine

Befitting the occasion, the temple complex was tastefully decorated with flowers and festoons while the entire hill station was seen replete with arches, thematic cut-outs depicting different legends, decorations with serial lamps etc.

Another first in the temple this year was that against the normal practice of completing all the pre-dawn rituals at midnight itself and throwing it open for the new year-eve darshan at 12 midnight, this year darshan was allowed only from 3 a.m. VIPs including central and state ministers, judges, senior bureaucrats, business magnates, executives besides the TTD Board members and officials were given the previlege to have the darshan first using the VVIP passes priced at Rs.500/- and Rs.200/- each. The ghat-road was kept open round the clock to let the stream of vehicles climb up the hill. Special parking lots were provided on the hill and traffic regulated to avoid snarl-ups.

A buffer of three lakh laddus were kept ready to meet the demand from the new year rush. an orderly darshan.

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