This post is about my recent and unplanned visit to Tirupati a few days ago. Also those whom had visited Tirupati Balaji darshan before that, you can tell about experiences here. This post may be quite long. If not interested you can skip this.

నమస్కారం 🙏
I went with my Marwari friends this time. Went in 16053 from Tiruvallur to Renigunta in...
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2S coach. We went for foothpath route from Alipiri bettu by an Share auto. We reached Alipiri at 6 15 PM on Last Friday and had a lite food, and started to walking on that path by 7 00PM. The Alipiri route was 8.8Kms and had 3250 steps. We are all purchased a ticket and was free of cost using Aadhar Card and facial identification before Alipiri. We are hearing songs of SriVari Swamy while we are proceeding to Tirumala in phones. Although it was some what difficult to climb, yet in some places, there are long foothpaths instead of steps. The last 550 steps are notoriously difficult to climb as these steps are too steep so we crawled up to reach there.

Finally we reached Tirumala successfully, and we are trying to find rooms by TTD, we reached there at about 11 30PM, and rooms were not available for us. So we went to locker room for to safeguard our belongings and tried to sleep there as it act as dormitory too. We got Key of locker by 3 30AM(Saturday) and slept for just an hour and then we got up to ready for Darshan. I weared Traditional dress (Yellow shirt+Dhoti) other my friends weared normal dresses after bath.

We walked up for Darshan via Divya Darshanam corridor. While we reaching for Checkup just at a movement, all problems started. At 6:30 AM, While we are checking up our tickets, the QR code scanner doesn't recognise our ticket and we are confused. Then officers of TTD came and we told these issue and they replied that , "Did you had verified your ticket at Gali Gopuram and put stamp there"? We are totally shocked at a time. Because there is no proper information given to us regarding verification of tickets at Gali Gopuram and while walking in Alipiri Path they are just announcing that "Stay safe from Cheetahs, Don't go alone" like that only. We tried to intervene this matter and asked apology to the TTD staff atleast for this time for this mistake but they behaved very rude and not allowing us to go to Darshan 😔. Similar like us, some 100-150 devotees suffered due to this issue. They pulled us from back side and kicked outside by rude, indecent TTD officials. In response, one or two transgender women affected by this situation slapped the rude TTD officials. The situation got serious and we are forced to leave darshan. At the time, we approached Jeep drivers to help us to reach Gali Gopuram about 8:30 AM for to put seal and verification but they asked us to pay ₹3000-4000/- for to make journey there and we refused citing too much amount to reach there. My Marwadi friend went Tirupati via Alipiri path and Divya Darshanam route just two months ago but they didn't have rules like this and easily completed his darshan. Horrible management and unstable rules of TTD.

I lost all my hopes to have darshan and suggested to go to home due to this unfortunate situation. But my Marwadi friends refused my appeal and we went for "Sarvadharshanam" corridor (For those people who don't have any verified ID cards they can have darshan) but it is too tedious and caused about additional 14 hours of waiting time as Devotees were splitted into batches and were putted in an cage like gallery for 12 hours. We reached that cage like gallery at 10 30 AM and patiently waited until 10 45 PM as the caged gallery is too crowded with devotees.

We had Darshan sharp at 11 45 PM(Saturday) but just for 2-3 secs only and the officials were ready to push devotees very rudely and women devotees are also treated badly. After that we went to Laddoo corridor to but laddoos and took additional one hour. We left after buying ladoos at 12:45 AM (Sunday morning) and we had a lite breakfast although it is very hungry for us as going towards Ghats will cause nausea and vomiting if we eat too much. Finally left Tirumala by 2:00 AM today and reached Tirupati Bus stand by 3:00 AM and reached my home safely by the grace of Shri Balaji Maharaj by 7 30 AM today this morning.

This is one of my regretted journeys in my life. TTD is known for often changing rules without proper information. Officers were too rude and misbehaving with women during enquiry. During final stage of Darshan, all kinds of devotees (from ₹300/- RS Online Darshan to Free Darshan devotees coming from both Divya Darshanam and Sarva Darshanam were being mixed at the entrance of the main Gopuram. This should needed to be changed. During my Sarvadharshanam corridor while proceeding for Caged gallery I had severe colic pain and I forced to rush to toliets. Although there are many toilets were there, many of the entrances were locked/soldered by metal. I feel totally ashamed as my colic pain started to increase. I ran through the side gaps in rush for finding restroom. Finally I found one operational restroom at Luggage Checking cum deposit counter. Also while in line one individual in line started to criticize Andhra Pradesh government as CM of Andhra Pradesh is an Crypto Christian(and it is true) and that's why we Hindus are suffering like this etc etc.

PS: These incidents are occured really to me. It may can differ among individuals. However my intention is not to hurt anyone's feelings, sentiments, intentions etc. If anything like this I apologise for that. And our family worship Balaji Maharaj and Hanuman Ji on Saturdays and this issue is between treatment of Devotees by TTD officials. I hope so these things will change in future. Om Namo Venkatesaya🙏🕉️