Chapter 23: chapter 23

19Even though Hyderabad Tamils have many places to take their relatives for sightseeing in Secunderabad, they never forget to take them to the Murugan Temple in Skandagiri and the Nagamma temple at Thirumalagiri, Mariadoss told me. Maria doss was an important officer in R.R.L. As Pavai Chandran, the editor of Kungumam magazine was his friend he used to write short stories now and then in Kungumam. He enjoyed it as a sort of pastime. Whenever he began talking, the number of people who wanted to escape was more than his listeners. There were many friends, who, on seeing him enter their houses, would hide themselves in the toilet or bath room. Only when the ladies in the house promised that he had left, they would come out. This was the fate of those who considered time as something precious; for others there was no problem. They would sit and listen to him unmindful of the passage of time. He would talk about many things in a harmless and innocent way. As his talk would be interesting, the listener would not realize the passage of time.Mariadoss had never gone to the Nagamma temple. He had seen that temple whenever he went to Thirumalagiri. He had seen thousands of people nudging each other on Fridays and Sundays and on other auspicious days. Once he said, “The crowd was as large as the one that used to wait to see the Pope!” I asked him, “Have you gone and seen Pope!” He replied, “No, No, Only in photos!” As Nagamma was a snake goddess, hundreds of eggs and liters of milk were given to her as offerings. In an atheistic tone, sometimes he would say, “The milk and the eggs could be given to poor hungry children!” At the same time, he would be very careful that his atheistic tone was not exposed! “Your people go to Skandagir Murugan temple! How come the statues of Lord Perumal and His disciple Hanuman were put there- Vaishnavite deities in a Siva temple! This type if ‘interpolation’ was everywhere. Whenever the holy man Sakarachariar came here he never failed to go to Skanadgiri”, he told me.I came to know once that the list included Balaji Temple in Chilkur In Kandipettai along with Thirumalagiri Nagamma temple and Skandagiri Murugan temple. However, the priority list consisted of Salar Jung Museum, Hussain Sagar, Golkonda fort and Birla Mandir.Kandipettai was the lake that supplied water to Hyderabad and Secunderabad, the twin cities. It was far away from the twin cities. The media and the people continuously kept an eye on the water level in the lake. Tourists also visited the spot in small numbers.One of my friends was urging me repeatedly that I should visit Chilkur Balaji temple. I’m not used to go to temples for worshipping. Therefore, I rejected his request every time. “You see, the deity there is known as passport and visa Balaji. You’re trying to go abroad. You also feel that things were dragging on. Why not go at least once?” he asked me.I was making preparations for a world tour in protest against child labour. The plan was to start the journey from five places in the world, protesting against child labour and converging in Geneva. I was included in the group that started from India. Kailash Sathyarthi from Delhi arranged the trip. Paul Baskar of the Peace Foundation from Dindugal and Aloysius of ‘Save’ were making preparations for my journey. They had my passport and had also got my signature in the visa application. I expected that this trip also would be very interesting and useful as the one I took to Sri Lanka and European countries, a bonanza I got by winning a competition conducted by the Tamil magazine Kumudham“You know why I am asking you to go to the temple. You please go there once! Balaji will take care of your visa!” my friend pleaded. I decided to go to Kandipettai not to meet Balaji but just to spend a day. Coconuts, plantains, camphor were not allowed there. Nobody should put money in the Hundi as offering. People should go around the temple eleven times praying the Lord to fulfil their wish. After the wish materialized, they should go around the temple three times. No other expenses! The devotees felt it was easy for them to request the Lord to fulfil their wishes without much expense as the temple did not have any hundi. Most of them visited the temple with a satisfaction as though they had visited Thirupathi itself. It was more convenient for the old.Suddenly, I reviewed my plan to go the Visa Balaji temple. It was because I met Balathiripursundari. Her life was a big struggle. Her husband died when he was just forty and it was an unbearable burden for her to educate her son and daughter and settle them in life. Her son went abroad after a love marriage. He used to send her a little money. That paltry sum equalled the money he spent on a Sunday for having an outing. That wasn’t enough even to meet the S.T.D. charges. The daughter was employed. Due to continuous health problems, Balathirupurasundari’s life was wrecked. The daughter was fast passing the marriageable age. As the family was a mix of Tamil and Telugu Iyengar sects, there were few offers from the traditional Iyengar families. The inability of the families of the prospective bridegrooms to decide on their identity- whether they are Tamils or Telugus - was delaying her marriage. Bala had gone to the Balaji temple then. Her prayer was regarding a bridegroom from America. It seemed that things would go smoothly. She went around the temple praying for her daughter’s visa and marriage.Balathirupurasunadari had been preparing for the marriage for more than six months. On the day she visited the temple, she received the shock of her life: the news that came from America told her that the marriage proposal had been dropped.Even then, she never made any complaint against the Lord or the temple. She was telling that a Tamil professor friend of hers, after trying fruitlessly for five years for an Australian visa for his daughter, got her visa after visiting the temple. She was repeatedly saying that Balaji accepted Visa- prayers. She would not accept that Lord Balaji had rejected her prayers. She said that only she was not lucky enough to go around the Balaji temple three times. She planned to take her daughter to Kalahasti soon, she told me.One of her surprises also caught me too: “A Pretty girl, educated and having a decent job… why wasn’t she caught in a love affair in these modern times? Had she fallen in love with someone and married him my burden would have been reduced! Why did it not happen? Only Visa Balaji knows the answer!” she told in anguish.