Trip to Vellore:

I was invited for the marriage of one my ex-colleagues' brother, which was scheduled to be held in Vellore on 10th of Feb 2008. Since I wanted to attend the marriage and also to visit the Vellore Golden Temple , I decided along with other friends that we could make it.

After thorough and repeated checks, finally it was clear that me, Hari and Deena can go from Chennai. Sai and Raju directly from Bangalore. The plan was confirmed only on the previous day of marriage and hence, we didn’t have any choice except to take a bus to Vellore (in fact, the headcount was less otherwise we could have taken a cab).

We planned to be at Koyambedu Bus Station at 7 p.m. Thanks to the traffic condition in Chennai (being a ‘Muhurtham’ day), I was able to reach at 7.05, Deena at 8.00 and finally, Hari at 9.00. Good thing happened was that, since I didn’t want to waste my time waiting for friends, I got the book “The monk who sold his ferrari” from a book shop over there and was able to complete about 30 pages before Deena reached.

We took a bus to Vellore at about 9.10 p.m. We couldn’t get together-seats to sit. Also, we were jam-packed by passengers who surrounded us by standing, by sitting and by laying on the floor very next to us and scratching purposelessly. So, the journey was that ‘pleasant’ :-).

Reached Vellore at 12.30 and got an auto to reach the Hotel. Surprised to see that Sai was waiting to receive us. And, in fact he helped to wipe off our hungry by offering a biscuit packet which served as a dinner. We slept at about 2.30.

Since weekends are nightmares for visitors, we decided to visit the temple in the early morning itself. So, we got up at 4 a.m. and left at 4.30 a.m. to temple. But surprised to note that the temple gate opens only by 8 a.m. We waited till then enjoying the hilarious conversation with Sai.

To talk about temple, Wow, it is awesome. I could say that the founder “Sakthivel” has really done a wonderful thing which is highly impossible for a normal man. Tonnes and tonnes of shining Gold, amazing workmanship, highly decorated and neatly maintained gardens,,,, ooof, we should be proud to tell the world that we got something like this….marvelous… Everyone must visit this temple once in a life time.

We then attended the marriage. Met CEO of ‘Arusuvai.com’ Babu and few of his friends. We caught the bus at 2 p.m back to Chennai.

Quite a short and memorable trip…..