[adisan]

Details regarding walk-in darshan facility for parents with infant of age below one year
Source: Hindu Dayashankar

Excerpts:

The pilgrims visiting Tirumala for Srivari darshan with a one-year-old baby are allowed for the direct free darshan without waiting in the long queue lines for hours in the compartments.
However, there is no advance booking or darshan charges.
The devotees should report at Supadham entrance and they can have only one darshan in a month.

[raju2512]

Seva Electronic DIP is open for October 2023. Results tomorrow at 12 noon

[adisan]

Dates announced for different quotas being opened on the TTD e-seva website in the coming days.
Additional SED tickets for Aug and Sep will be opened on 25-7-23.
Source: TTD e-seva website

[Altrozed]

Tragic news from the steps of Tirumala.
A 6 yr old girl was pulled away by a cheetah in the alipiri side steps and was found dead after couple of hours. This unfortunate event happened 4 days back around 11pm midnight.
TTD planning to bar the entry via foot/steps from 6pm to 6am but no decision has been taken yet.


On the other hand, if you are planning to take steps 15000 tickets of 300rs would be given at Galigopuram from 6am onwards. The 1st 15000 pilgrims can avail this.
From the Srivari metlu (other steps route-lesser taken), around 5000 tickets are being given.

Anybody interested can try.

@Mods, please merge into a different thread if it doesn't qualify here.

[Mystic]

We grew up going to Tirumala every year since child hood. Every time is an adventure. Sometimes it would be VIP treatment when I went with my father on one of his official visits as he was Chief Engineer with Andhra Pradesh Government. Other times, we even had to come back without Dharshan due to unimaginable crowd. Sometimes, we had a Dharshan and don't have accommodation on the hill. Sometimes I drive to Tirumala directly and drop my family senior citizens in the cottage and come back by bus to Tirupati and climb again by walk to the hill of 9 kms and 3600 steps along with other young family folks.

I downloaded the TTD app and started exploring the various options. I found one option which suits my requirements. As my son became one of the youngest PhD in CS-AI-NLP and also one of the youngest faculty member in one of the top 5 universities in USA, I wanted to do some sort of a donation for education in India. I went through the details of the Sri Venkateswara Vidyadana Trust by TTD. This scheme solves both my yearly visits and my donation requirement.
I paid online Rs 1,01,116 and I get SUPATHAM entry once every year for a life time for 5 family members along with accommodation and laddus as Prasadam .You can claim 80G tax exemption. The darshan booking takes a few minutes on the app and I can book for any day in a year.

Details of Sri Venkateswara Vidyadana Trust:
Literacy and awareness to banish the darkness of knowledge through Education for all is the route to empowerment of India. With this view, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams has embarked on discharging its social responsibility towards education. For this purpose, the Board of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams has floated a public charitable trust namely the Sri Venkateswara Vidyadana Trust in the month of April,2008. The main objectives of this trust is as follows, To take all necessary steps through any and all possible means, methods and processes for inculcating, propagating disseminating, and promoting social discipline moral values and ethical etiquette among the people of India, in particular in younger generation and to instill, in them faith in the fundamentals and tenets of Indian culture which has been practiced and has been the back bone of cultural and moral fabric of our nation from times immemorial

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by Altrozed

Tragic news from the steps of Tirumala.
A 6 yr old girl was pulled away by a cheetah in the alipiri side steps and was found dead after couple of hours. This unfortunate event happened 4 days back around 11pm midnight.
TTD planning to bar the entry via foot/steps from 6pm to 6am but no decision has been taken yet.

Really tragic and scary! TTD urgently responding now.
https://m.timesofindia.com/city/amar.../102699958.cms

[Altrozed]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Really tragic and scary! TTD urgently responding now.
https://m.timesofindia.com/city/amar.../102699958.cms

After 2PM, kids are no more allowed along foot steps. Every 100 pilgrims form a batch and escorted with a security and will be handed over to another security.

OTOH, the cheetah which attacked the poor girl is now caught in the trap laid.

[AppyS]

Originally Posted by mankuthimma

We too had opted for Arjitha Brahmotsavam tickets this Monday and had a peaceful darshan within 40 minutes without getting locked at any of the waiting rooms. Last time too, we had similar experience. So it appears like that this particular timeslot between 2-4 PM has worked best for us with leaner wait times. This has been our much preferred option than going via SED tickets. Heard that bus package darshan was ~4 hrs that day and going by announcements, sarva darshan wait times were 30 hrs !!

This time, we made use of recently introduced EV AC buses by APSRTC between Tirupati and Tirumala. It starts from Railway Station at Tirupati and drops at Ram Bagicha bus station at Tirumala. We could leave our footwear at Ram Bagicha footwear counter, have Anna Prasadam near by, attend the Brahmotsavam seva at Vaibhavotsam Mandapam which is also nearby, deposit mobiles at Supatham mobile deposit counter before entering the queue at Supatham entry point. No rush, no queues here for deposit or collection. All in all, found the EV bus option very convenient and comfortable than taking our own cars.

Previous day, we had walked up the hill via Srivari Mettu which took just 1.5-2 hrs compared to Alipiri Mettu which had taken us 4-5 hrs last time.

By Gods grace, everything went so well and He ensured that we had a very satisfactory darshan this time too.

Hi @mankuthimma @audioholic,can 300 sed ticket holder also take this Supadam route you talk of? I located the footwear drop point, but unable to locate the mobile drop points for this route. I am planning to do tonsure at Kalyankatta and then enter from this path if 300 ticket holders are allowed. Kindly suggest a best entry spot for 2pm slot.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by AppyS

Hi @mankuthimma @audioholic,can 300 sed ticket holder also take this Supadam route you talk of? I located the footwear drop point, but unable to locate the mobile drop points for this route. I am planning to do tonsure at Kalyankatta and then enter from this path if 300 ticket holders are allowed. Kindly suggest a best entry spot for 2pm slot.

Nope SED entrance is separate and they won't allow you in Supatham. You have to enter in the regular entrance meant for 300 rupee ticket holders in the other end of the queue complex.

[mankuthimma]

Originally Posted by AppyS

.., but unable to locate the mobile drop points for this route...

Yeah thats right. Supatham entry is not allowed for SED tickets. The walking path besides the Supatham entrance will also lead you to SED entry point. So you can still drop the mobile phones at the counter near Supatham entrance by showing your SED ticket. This counter is always less crowded and easy to locate once you exit the temple after darshan.

[neelkumar]

Hey guys, we are planning to get my infant daughter tonsured at Tirumala. I just have few queries about the hygiene there.

1. How clean is their razor/blade? Should we get our own blade/razor or the one used by them is clean enough? I'm worried about the allergies and any infections that may be caused by the blade, but also worried that asking them to use a new blade/razor which they are not comfortable with might cause more injuries.
2. How are the washrooms there and is hot water available? Can we get any clean place in a hotel near by just to take a bath? We have our hotel accommodation in thirupati and it does not make sense going back just to take a bath and then returning again for darshan.

[ravib]

Originally Posted by neelkumar

Hey guys, we are planning to get my infant daughter tonsured at Tirumala. I just have few queries about the hygiene there.

1. How clean is their razor/blade? Should we get our own blade/razor or the one used by them is clean enough? I'm worried about the allergies and any infections that may be caused by the blade, but also worried that asking them to use a new blade/razor which they are not comfortable with might cause more injuries.
2. How are the washrooms there and is hot water available? Can we get any clean place in a hotel near by just to take a bath? We have our hotel accommodation in thirupati and it does not make sense going back just to take a bath and then returning again for darshan.

I had done tonsure for my little girl few years ago. There were no concerns.

1. They always use a new razor blade for each person. Mostly one half for one person and other half for another person. They don't reuse same blade. If you are in doubt, carry one on your own,but i doubt they will accept it. Give it a try.

2. Hot water is available. For kids, you can actually bath them in the open area/where taps are there itself. That said, the bathrooms and washrooms are relatively well maintained for the crowd. Not that you cannot step in at all. However, i will also caution you, try NOT to go during peak crowd or hours. Plan for less crowded time or odd hours to have better experience. Don't expect perfection or super clean or very hygienic ones, but its also not that terrible to say the least.

-Ravi

[UD17]

Originally Posted by neelkumar

returning again for darshan.

One of my colleague visited there 10 days back. It took him almost 20 hour to get the darshan. He said that this could be due to 'Adhikmas' when huge number of people visit serine places. Arrangements were although good to make this waiting bearable. But please check current situation.

[BRV]

Originally Posted by neelkumar

1. How clean is their razor/blade?
2. How are the washrooms there and is hot water available? Can we get any clean place in a hotel near by just to take a bath? We have our hotel accommodation in thirupati and it does not make sense going back just to take a bath and then returning again for darshan.

Originally Posted by ravib

I had done tonsure for my little girl few years ago. There were no concerns.

1. They always use a new razor blade for each person. Mostly one half for one person and other half for another person. They don't reuse same blade. If you are in doubt, carry one on your own,but i doubt they will accept it. Give it a try.

2. Hot water is available. For kids, you can actually bath them in the open area/where taps are there itself. That said, the bathrooms and washrooms are relatively well maintained for the crowd. Not that you cannot step in at all. However, i will also caution you, try NOT to go during peak crowd or hours. Plan for less crowded time or odd hours to have better experience. Don't expect perfection or super clean or very hygienic ones, but its also not that terrible to say the least.

-Ravi

+1, A regular here for Tirumala and give hair. New Blade is given for each person. You can try in Nandakam Guest house where mini Kalyana Katta (timing 6am - 8 pm) is available in ground floor. Crowd will be less compared to central Kalyana Katta (timings - always open). We went to Nandakam (last Sunday) around 6 am in the morning and hardly any crowd there and we had very neat tonsure, crowd increases 7 am onwards. Also, bathrooms next to it can be utilized, early morning hours as the crowd is less bathrooms are clean. Am not sure about the crowd in the evening as I never went in the evening.

Barbers clean their razor with Dettol solution after every shave. So no worries with hygiene. I did many give hair many times and also for my kid when she was 2 years onwards

For hot water, geysers are there however, don't expect hot water once the crowd increases as the water flows continuously.

There are lady barbers available, while taking the blade, if you say for kid, they will issue a token for them. If the kid is small, mom can feed them while barber does their work without making the kid cranky.

[neelkumar]

Thanks guys!

Our entire extended family is traveling there and some of us have confirmed SED tickets while for others we are still trying other ways to get them. I heard about some offline process to get SED tickets which we can get directly in Tirumala. Does anyone have any idea on this?

We would be traveling from Bangalore and plan to reach Tirupati by 1PM with our darshan time being 9PM the same day. Tonsure is planned before darshan. I hope the time is sufficient?