Chapter 2: To Chennai

One day I receive a call from an unknown number. It was from a young boy, asking if I was Aditya, attending ARMY? I replied yes. He introduced himself as Gopi.

He said he too was a Ritwik attending the Yagna and got my contact number. Through him, the circuit of six people attending the Yagna from Hyderabad got complete.

In a few days our itinerary was sent by email and our tickets were confirmed on Thai International Airways from Madras to Bangkok.

Wow!

It was an exciting feeling for reasons being many. First international flight, it was an Air-Bus A330 aircraft, and most importantly it is almost sure that we were attending the Yagna, not that we were

doubting, but were in utter amazement!

Days passed quickly and our personal Sadhana intensified. We had to go to Madras to catch our flights. Myself and the other five met, booked our tickets to madras.

Six of us, Gopi, Tarak, Prasanna, Panth, Sanmukh and Myself started for Chennai from Hyderabad on the Second of June. We were to join the rest of the group at Chennai, from where out flight was scheduled at 2300 h on the Third. We were all excited. We reached Chennai and called the coordinator

Mr. AK Kumar for further directions. None of us except Prasanna, had ever talked to or met Kumargaru. He said he would arrange for our pick up.

We walked out of the Railway Station, and waited for further instruction, when we received a call from Vijay, Swamy’s MBA student informing his arrival for pick up.

There were two cars waiting for us. We loaded our luggage and left, for Kumargaru’s house.

Reached the place and Kumargaru had instantly recognized each one of us. He wished each one of us personally by name. I was really surprised, there must have been several passports that he must have received from various parts of the country, and he recognizes each one of us! Gentle and loving demeanor, he asked to fresh up, and have breakfast so that we could proceed to our lodging.

We felt we were at home at Kumar garu's place. There was lovely Altar for Swamy where Mangala Aarathi was offered to Swamy before we left for our lodging for the day.

Three AC busses were waiting for us. I was Impressed. It was more of a kind of relief for us Hyderabadis in humid Chennai.

We moved to L R Swamy building on the Mount Road, a high profile area in Chennai, where there was a beautiful terrace top Mandir of Swamy. We had our lunch and started to pack the materials to be taken to the Yagna. We toiling in the humid Chennai afternoon, our shirts literally drenched in sweat. In total we packed and re-packed 38 cartons each weighing about 40 kg.

Pheww!!

Time just flew, and we didn’t realize that it was already 2000 hrs and was almost time for us to leave to the airport. TATA Sumo's were arranged for our transfer to the Airport. The entire L R Swamy building area was reverberating with Jaikars! It was a highly elevating moment celebrating the victory of Sathya Sai.

The excitement was running high, for most of us it was first international trip ever, and for a few, the first

flight.

We took our boarding passes, Immigration stamping was done. First stamp in most our passports.

I was thoroughly impressed by the arrangements and the connectivity and readiness of Kumargaru and team. In the Unique style of Swamy, thoroughly imbibed, it was a smooth flawless flow of events and arrangements. We were waiting in the airport lobby, for the announcement for commencement of our boarding into Thai International Airlines, Airbus A330 - 300 TG 338 from MAA to BKK.