Tirumala Padayatra 2021
Saturday, Day - 01
This day - Saturday, 18 December 2021, at 8:00 AM we started our Padayatra from our Naicker Chattiram Residence.
This year, we started from here in the morning hours itself which gave us few additional hours on our first day.
All participating members were informed to reach here by 6:30 AM, so that breakfast can be served before 7:30 AM and we can start by 8:00 AM by which we can stay on schedule. Almost all members reached on time by public or by their own transport.
So before starting our pilgrimage, everyone had their first breakfast here.
Last year during our pilgrimage, due to lesser participant count, for all our food requirements, we sourced the food from the local places wherever we stayed / halted. This time due to the higher count we decided & went ahead to hire a caterer, to prepare and serve us food for all 3 days of our pilgrimage.
Food getting prepared for the breakfast and lunch for the first day
Members arriving and gathering.
And we started with our breakfast in the terrace of our house.
For the escort and service purpose we had 2 vehicles this time, 'Tommy' Siva's Honda CRV driven by Yuvaraj & Balaji's Honda City driven by Vezhavendhan. And also a mini truck was arranged for carrying pilgrims luggage & water bottles.
Also the caterer brought a separate mini truck for carrying his team & kits.
After breakfast we started our pilgrimage by 8:00 AM.
The schedule of the day is to assemble here at Naicker Chattiram for breakfast, start from here, Lunch at Kannigaiper, afternoon tea break near Periyapalayam, dinner and night halt at Latchivakkam, covering roughly 35 KM for the day.
In another 30 to 45 minutes walk we reached our Lunch point at Kannigaiper Village. This being a new location in our schedule, in spite of being told that it is at the end of the village few members had difficulty in finding it. But in a while the service vehicle arrived to the spot and it was parked outside the gate for spotting the place.
By 11:30 AM itself, most of the members had reached the location and they had time to relax, rest and stretch before having lunch.
Usually during the previous years, we cover this entire distance from our start point after lunch to the night halt point at Thandalam in a single long session. But this time, having a break in-between exactly at the point where you start getting tired is a welcoming change in our schedule and many felt this to be a comforting.
In an hour, catering vehicle arrived and the lunch was served.
This time too, similar to last year, we used the opalware plates for having our food. So it was easy and comfortable for serving like a buffet.
After finishing lunch, part of the pilgrims started immediately since the weather was cloudy and also the night stay place was a bit further than our regular night halt location, though some stayed back for an extended rest before starting again.
We reached the temple town Periyapalayam around 4:00 PM and visited the Bhavani Amman Temple. There was no crowd in the temple and we were able to have our darshan quickly without any queue.
All the pilgrims refreshed and had a good rest before dinner and around 7:30 PM dinner was served.
With that, Day-1 had come to an end and we retired for the night to start afresh tomorrow.
