Its truly festive times at Kanchi; turn around and all you see are humans, no roads in site. At the same time a humble small town is bombarded with massive crowd. Though there is a plan in place by the authorities to manage the crowd, much needs to be done. Without a full fledged arrangement, the Athivaradhar's dharisanam should not have been publicized to this extent.
The devotees are differentiated into VVIPS, DONOR's and general. Each set has its own set of entrance path way to the temple's Vasantha mandapam where the Lord resides for the 48 days. Only vehicle with pass are allowed to get inside the town that too through the road near the fly over which is way beyond the arch which usually takes us inside Kanchipuram.
Vehicles entering with the pass are allowed by Policemen and guided by them till the parking lot which is at least 1 km away from the temple. From there one has to walk bare foot to the temple premises and find the entrance pathway. The streets leading to the entrance gateways brim with devotees.
After leaving Chennai around 4 am in the morning we reached Kanchipuram around 6:30. The toll gate near Kanchi was receiving humongous number of vehicles even at that time of the day. Many left their vehicles (with no pass) on both sides of the highway and entered the town in auto rickshaws or walking all the way.
With Donor passes in hand we got into the street which leads to the Donor pass gate and left agap to find the street 75% full and we are at the tail end. No movement either due to the ramp fixing work happening inside the temple near the Donor queue's path. For more than 2 hours the crowd was stay put. Being the 41st day of the 48 days vaibhogam we are bound to face this.
We came out of the street and walked a bit to gauge the situation. We felt like Athivaradhar dharshan is most unlikely today. With things not looking good we tried to charge up by having idly in the near-by shop. Wandered some more to learn that the VVIP queue is also built up to several meters. On inquiring with the policemen we came to know that the general queue is moving fast so we could catch the dharisanam and come out within an 1 hour.
The general queue goes through the east gopuram entrance while we are at the west gopuram for the Donor pass queue. Now its going to be a long walk for us to get to the other side of the temple. Already with the various pathways we just could not recognize the place. We had been to the Varadharaja Perumal temple earlier much easily. So we continued in the Donor pass way. The scorching heat and crowded atmosphere did tax us. On the way the near-by ashram people offered tomato rice for the long waiting devotees.
The houses on both sides of the street treated the hunger of the devotees. Buttermilk and cool drinks where sold in 1.5 times their price. Drinking water was provided free. Very near the temple entrance, water from bubble tops were distributed to the thirsty devotees in the queue. On reaching the temple entrance the passes were checked. There were few who had come in easily in the VVIP queue with Donor pass and at this verification spot joined the Donor pass queue and received the wrath of the long waiting people.
At the temple entrance a ramp has been built to let devotees enter from above the devotees leaving in the ground level. Temporary build ramp and dividers ensures smooth flow of the queue but crowd is always in a rush making the wait difficult. To the left of the entrance is the Vasantha Mandapam where the Lord takes residence for the 48 days. The whole mandapam is well decorated. Policemen guide the queue and redirect the queue with blocks. While the general queue can get a glimpse of the Lord outside the door of the Vasantha Mandapam. The devotees in the queue with pass is allowed to get inside the mandapam and we get a darshan of Athivarashar from just few feet. This is what we call in Tamil - 'Kankollaa Kaatchi'. In just a fraction of a second, policemen whisk you away.
Coming out of the Vasantha Mandapam, its a long way to the parking lot. Having got the darshan, we are left will no enthusiasm to walk any further so the return gets painfully difficult. Outside the gopuram in the temple premises huge hundis are kept for devotees to make their offerings. As the sun reached it peak in the sky, road gets heated up and make you walk helplessly in barefoot towards the parking space. By 12pm we left Kanchi to our onward journey to Chennai.
Beyond all the wait, Athivaradhar's dharsham was simply worth it. Hope he comes back after 40 years to see a better society and a much more developed country. Kudos to the organizers of the Vaibhogam.
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