Uttarakshetra

My parents flew down for the weekend. I had to rush to the airport straight from the office to pick them up on Friday night. I thought two days wasn't enough to make the visit worthwhile. To my pleasant surprise something else was in store. All my doubts were dispelled once the rays started trickling in into the hall way in my apartment, Saturday morning.

To my pleasant surprise everybody was up by 6.30 AM, Saturday morning eventhough we were late to bed. Our itenary included a visit to the Balaji temple on the outskirts of Pune. Once up and running we zoomed away on my brother's car - all cylinder's fired braving the disordered rush hour traffic towards the outskirts of the city. Entering into the ghat road was an exhilarating yet anxious experience. Crossing a tunnel was the high point in that stretch of the drive.

Once out of the ghat road and on to the high way the drive was pleasant. The sun was benign enough not to scorch us off with his fiery heat and yet shone off very bright. A few stops along the way asking for directions and before we knew it we were there ... "Uttarakshetra".

Uttarakshetra is a replica of the temple at Tirupathi. I was pleasantly surprised to hear chaste Telugu hymns in the heart of Maharashtra praising he Lord. If the entry by itself was nothing short of fascinating the inside of the temple held even bigger surprises.

The "sevas" being performed to the Lord are exactly inline with those being performed at his majestic abode on the seven hills. Well, this abode of the Lord wasn't a no show either! Wedged in the Sahyadri hills, the view from the temple was nothing short of breath taking!

Once inside the premises the temple all the priests spoke Telugu. The Lord was dressed in all his crowning glory as such the Lord only can be seen on a Saturday! After the darshan and a visit around the four other smaller shrines that were located around the periphery of the temple there was the icing on the cake (For those of you who do not like this idiom - You can put it as a "cashew on the laddu") in the form of a huge free laddu for everyone of the devotees and a very very tasty one at that!

Uttarakshetra was truly worth visiting. For a moment I thought I stepped into one of the temples in Andhra. A remarkable thing about the temple - it is one of the cleanest temples I ever visited. The "Safaai - Karmchaaris" (Janitors) were so dedicated that the moment something spilled on to the ground they were ready to sweep it up!