On 17th of august I took a flight to Hyderabad. Well, the weird part of that flight was its timing that was 3:25am- I landed around 5 am at a place I have only been once with my parents when I was 15 years old. There are certainly many complexities which revolves around my head when I travel alone. I feel a lot of things but I try to display myselff as I am a very emotionally numb person- that numbnesss becomes soreness when I am travelling. That soreness is because of how I behave with myself when I am sitting alone with my thoughts.
The sitting alone will never stop as my next stop was Secunderabad bus station in Hyderabad, from where I had to board a bus to a district named as Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh. Apart from its natural beauty which included massive amount of species be it flora or fauna- the place had the highest density of tigers in India according to the statistics of govt. of India. Well, I was not there for that as well- as my aim was to visit merely a temple where I had to get blessings of lord shiva. The temple was known as Mallikarjun temple and was one of the 12 jyotirlinga’s in India. The name Mallika-arjuna came from the stay of the holy cow- chandrawati who was found pouring milk to a self manifested linga and that linga was found covered around Mallika creepers (jasmine) and then shiva told that this linga will be called as Mallika-arjuna.
While travelling I visited different temples around the place, also got a look at the large Srisailam dam which holds the water of the Krishna river and also serves as the major source of electricity around that area from the auto. While I was there I met a couple around the age 60 I guess and they were struggling to sort out certain things. I helped the couple and we started talking, they were heavily surprised when they heard I am just 22 and travelling alone to temple in Andhra Pradesh. And then eventually we travelled ever other temple together around Srisailam- we also had the massive Bhandara which is in the main temple and it was free (there was no one stopping me, I think the people who were serving rolled there eyes thrice while they were passing by.
Nevermind, now came the interesting part- we did not have the return ticket back to Hyderabad. I helped the couple (they were from Bombay) and eventually we took three seats in the bus around 4 pm at the the Srisailam bus stand. I saw they were a bit tensed about certain things so I asked is there any problem? - they said nah we are just leaving tomorrow but we dont have a flight booked. I sat for 10 second and after regaining my thought process I asked then how will you leave? They said by flight - then I said but there is no booking right?- then they said my son will book it by today! - I have seen weird family dynamics before but this was a at a different sphere of family dynamics.
While we talked in the bus- I helped them book there flight, there hotel around the airport as we’ll and they also got to know that my birthday is on the 19th of august. I realised while we were sitting together for almost 8 hours, that people have stories in there eyes they try to refute it by any means and eventually the eyes makes it even more evident that they are having a story to tell. Well there story was- they were keen to Get a good night sleep at their home with there family as they were travelling for more than 25 days across 7 states in India. It was evident that they wanted to have that cup of tea watching tv at the sofa at their drawing room with their grandkids but they were running from home at the same time as well.
I think they got the warmth and comfort which is required while talking when we had those short conversations. With these small stories we reached Hyderabad- It was a rainy night. And whilst I was booking there hotel- I failed to book the my hotel. I searched for the hotel for around an hour and got one eventually- checked inn around 11:30 PM, by the time I got out after having a bath from a bathroom of a shady oyo hotel it was 12:10 am and I had around 8 missed calls from friends and family and some messages as well. But there was a message at 12:00 AM sharp from “Rakesh uncle Bombay”- Happy Birthday beta, God Bless you!
I had a smile on my face, not because I helped them but because the day went GREAT!! (Which is very rare)
THANKS FOR READING, Dher saara pyaar!!!!