Tirumala landscape and city commute by Puneet Rajhans

Puneet Rajhans

We are all rooting for Tirumala and the Lord that resides there.
As i left Tirumala in the month of June to proceed towards Maharashtra (Shirdi and Siddhivinayak ), the memories associated with taking three walks from Alipiri Gate to Tirumala (during my stay) keep coming back again and again. The 4000 odd steps involving steep climb and plateaued pathways nevertheless gives an opportunity to come face to face with the long imposing Lord Hanuman's statue right after the Gopuram and another Hanuman temple placed next to the walking path. Once you complete those 4000 odd steps, the first thing you try to do is to drown yourself in five to six glasses of strong tea. Post tea session you proceed with an advantage as you are in possession of a biometric token that simply takes care of your waiting worries and you join the queue right from the point where the movement doesn't stop. Cheers to that fraternity that takes to Tirumala frequently and even for those who make it occasionally.
As Tirumala in the months of May and June was fairly hot in the afternoon, still it was better than the humid driven temperatures in the North. The North was desperate for rains and it showered much later. In contrast Tirumala had long sessions of cool breeze accompanied with thundershowers. The weather and for that matter the meals in Tirumala are any day better than what a metro can provide.

As i write this i am reminded of a story done by Shreya Roy Chaudhry on Qutab Gurgaon link. Though descriptive elements of the story were strong enough to goad you to take this ride, the experience was a different one. Somewhere in the story it mentioned about the tall orange statue of Lord Hanuman. It seemed that this statue is somewhere in the vicinity of G'gaon and has come up in the recent past. Well you can have a glimpse right after the train pulls out of Qutab Station. THe statue is quite an imposing one and it has been there for over 15 years.
The view from the train is enough to turn you a skeptic as far as the landscape of G'gaon is concerned. It's a concrete jungle out there waiting to inhale more green space. Further the commuters aren't happy with the point to point connectivity that metro provides in G'gaon leaving enough stretch to be completed by other modes of transport which are hard to get.
What most people would suggest is that once the entire stretch opens (from J'puri-C. Sec to Qutab), the cosy comfort that this ride provides would be in limited edition. As the metro pulls out, there are scores of seats lying vacant. Further there are none to board the train at Sultanpur, Ghitroni, Arjan Garh, Guru Dronacharya, Sikandarpur, MG Road and Iffco Chowk stations. None to board? That's true.
In The G'gaon City Centre there are no CCTVs. When you board the train at Qutab and later at the City centre, frisking doesn't figure in their scheme of things. At least 30 to 40 odd people take the metro on either side. Apart from providing connectivity to a limited extent, this route doesn't serve much purpose. You are left stranded at odd places. Once you are out of Huda city centre, you can at the most hire a rickshaw. For how long can the poor man peddle and for what distance. At the Qutab side things are much worse. Thinking to cross over to the other side of the road. Wait for an hour at least unless the vehicles are magnanimous enough to slow down to let you pass. This stretch is a sheer waste. And when the entire stretch gets going, securing a seat would be a thing of the past. The comforting thought would be you would board it at C Sec and you would be in G'gaon in nearly one hour. Away from the heat and dust of City Traffic and also lucky enough to escape the menacing bluelines and autowallahs. But what would be the scale to which this mode would be tried. If it is big enough and still the personal vehicles maintain their momentum then no one can rescue this city.