दीड हजार किलोमीटरचा बाईकवरचा प्रवास…!

Share a story about the furthest you’ve ever traveled from home.

• If the divine itself calls you for a visit, you will have a divine encounter even without any prior preparation. I had the rare and thrilling experience of visiting Tirupati Balaji, located 750 kilometers away from my home, through a motorcycle journey. Since then, I have never been able to visit Tirupati, even when I planned to.
• This incident dates back to 1998. I am a resident of Solapur, a city in the state of Maharashtra, India. Solapur is the district headquarters. At that time, I was working as a journalist for a Marathi newspaper. One day, my friend Mahendra Kavachale, who lived in the same area as me, came to visit me at the newspaper office where I worked. He had just purchased a new motorcycle from Hero Honda and had come to show it to me. Casually, I remarked, “A newly bought motorcycle isn’t just for showing off; it’s meant to be taken on a trip.” Immediately, Mahendra proposed that we should leave for Tirupati Balaji’s darshan early the next morning.
• And so, the two of us set off from Solapur to visit Tirupati Balaji in the state of Andhra Pradesh, 750 kilometers away, on his new motorcycle. It was the peak of winter, and the cold was intense. The journey had been planned suddenly, so we had only packed a few clothes in a sack on our backs. We started our journey safely at a steady speed. After passing through the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, we made a stop at Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh. At that time, the notorious sandalwood smuggler Veerappan was wreaking havoc in the forests of NallaMalla, Nagarjuna. While we were traveling through the Nagarjuna Wildlife Sanctuary in the morning, Veerappan’s gang had blown up a bridge in the mountain pass just a short time before. This had brought traffic in the pass to a standstill. We experienced this thrilling situation as we crossed the forest.
• Furthermore, while passing through Kurnool district, the traffic was disrupted in several places due to farmer protests. We heard about incidents of stone-pelting and arson. However, upon realizing that we were devotees on our way to the temple, people cleared the path for us. Despite this, there was still the pressure of traveling through unfamiliar territory.
• Ultimately, since it was the divine who had called us, we safely reached Tirupati through all these thrilling incidents and had a smooth darshan. This entire bike journey lasted five days, full of thrills but also devotion. Since then, in the past 26 years, I haven’t had the opportunity to visit Tirupati again. Only if Venkateshwara Balaji calls will I get the chance.

:-Mukund Madhukar Hingne.