India Vacation experience - June 11th to Aug 8th 2021

It all started with my H1B Petition getting approved within 1.5 weeks after it was filed with USCIS on Dec 2020. Ironically, it took more than 3 months for my employer to file it with USCIS. And in that time period, lot of things happened – Trump lost the elections, a US court reversed the DOL’s rule to hike the salary of H1B applicants (by close to 100%) – I wouldn’t have been impacted by this anyway as my LCA was drawn much before the rule came into force (abruptly), etc.

 

If I cover every single aspect of what happened between Jan 21 to Aug 21, it will be too big of an article to write or read. I will try keep this short and crisp, but at the same time trying to convey the essence of everything.

 

Onward Tickets:

1.       Decided to go on leave and applied for it. After that, never bothered to check the nitty gritties of visa stamping process. All I bothered was to get tickets for cheapest price! From Jan to Mar this is what I did.

2.       Booked the tickets in Lufthansa for cheapest price. Was ecstatic. But realized the mistake later – travelling to India via Germany is fine even with expired US visa. But travel back is problematic even for the exempted category travelers, due to confusion prevailing at that time.

3.       Spent several days calling them and pleading to cancel and issue full refund. Frustration reached peak levels. After a point, I just let it go. Anyways I can travel to India… challenges of travelling back can be dealt later.

4.       But thankfully, Lufthansa themselves cancelled the flight from Bangalore due to pandemic. But neither they sent email nor there was any call. Thanks to travel group in Telegram, I came to know about it and immediately called up the airline and got the refund issued! Problem #1 solved by itself.

5.       I didn’t book tickets again till first week of June – due to so much uncertainty prevailing after April 30^th travel ban proclamation. Finally, after carefully analyzing the inputs from Telegram groups, decided to go for the overly pricey AI. Problem#2.

6.       AI too cancelled the flight exactly a week before! Worst part – even today I’ve not got the refund they promised.

Finally---------

7.       After what seemed an eternity lost in finding other cheaper flight option, I managed to book on Etihad on June 6^th, for travel on June 11^th! A record of sort I thought – for having managed to get cheap tickets for international flight on the week of travel!

Visa stamping appointment:

1.       From Jan till march, except ticket booking and other work, I never bothered to check about visa stamping appointment. I assumed that we would have to go to Chennai anyways and I can do that later. Every now and then I just checked the portal and saw that “first available appointment” was in next week or so. Another mistake? Let’s see.

2.       A call with Mohit one day helped me to know that due to pandemic, USCIS has extended the visa interview waiver option from 3 years to 4 years now.

3.       In order to take advantage of it, I need to book appointment by end of June last week itself.

4.       Immediately I logged in and started looking for appointments – I came to know that “first available appointment” info in the home page was misleading info. No one knew what that was as one can never find appointment around that date!!

5.       To my disappointment, there was no slot available in Chennai within June end. None in Mumbai or Hyd too –locations closer to me. Only 2 locations had it – Delhi and Kolkata! Went with Kolkata. Thought I did another mistake booking the appointment so late, by believing the “first available appointment” trap.

Finally----------

6.       There were no mistakes anywhere. Booking the appointment late helped me to get benefit of extended interview waiver policy. And booking in Kolkata was huge, huge benefit. Biggest of anything else. How? The third wave of pandemic forced all 3 consulates to shut the operations till June end. The only 2 that operated were – Kolkata and Delhi!! In that too, Delhi started earlier to Kolkata by a week or so.

7.       The time period from April 30^th till Last week of May was very depressing. At one side the news of Pandemic wreaking havoc and on another side the news of consulates shutting down, issuing 221 g, cancelling scheduled appointments. Several times I decided to cancel the travel plan and each time I ended up cancelling not the travel plan, but the plan to cancel the plan😊

8.  How can i forget this. On the day of my appointment at Kolkata, I left my Hotel room at 9.30AM itself for my 12.30 PM appointment, thinking that they will let me in early. But I was denied early entry and was told to come back 30Mins before my appointment time. For next 2 hrs, I roamed around the central Kolkata by walk, getting drenched completely in my own sweat due to the humidity! Thanks to Covid, no temple was allowing devotees. So my plan of visiting famous temples of Kolkata didn't happen.

9.  18th June was my apointment. While handing over the documents, the person told me that the photo was not meeting the requirements. It should have been in white or off-white background, whereas ours was in Gray background. Plus there was a smile on my wife's face in the photo. Person was kind enough to offer me 2-3 hrs to get new photos if I wish. It was not so hard for me to make decision - there was covid lockdown at both Kolkata and Mysore. So neither can my wife take her photo and send me the softcopy nor I can take photo of myself in this unknown city during lockdown. So I said i'm ready to take risk.

10. Next week Thursday I recieved call from Kolkata. I was surprised. I picked the call and the person told me that he is from Kolkata VFS and he called to inform me that my DS 160 was not loading due to some technical issue. My wife's loaded fine. He was too kind. He requested me to fill a new DS 160 and share it next day. He apologised for it!! 

11. Now comes the interesting part. While filling up the new DS 160 I was referring to my old DS 160 and noticed that in the old form I had mentioned my highest qualification as "High School"!! Had the form loaded fine, I would have been rejected the visa easily!! I got shiver down spine.

 

India

1.       Well, what to say. Everything that we planned, we accomplished. But just that the order in which it was accomplished was laid down by God. We just went in the direction he took us. What is there to fear when he himself is holding our hands all the time.

2.       Initial 2 weeks – Lockdown ensured that we couldn’t go anywhere out of city. So, all the local work was done – Bank, post office, Locker work (which saw my mom falling down and getting her pelvic fractured), Rekha’s Aadhar updates, House cleaning and setup, Satyanarayana puja etc.

3.       Travel started from 3^rd week onwards. Took blessings of ever smiling and divine – Sri Raghavendra swami at Mantralaya. So, it was God’s intent to start our pilgrimage with blessings of Guru.

4.       Then the God gave us his Darshan at the abode of Venkatachala hills. Walk-in Darshan was stopped at Tirupati due to covid. So, God himself made me to call the Kashi mutt Guest house who himself guided me how to get the special darshan tickets by booking the Kalyana seva tickets, without I asking for it. (300 Rs ticket used to get sold out like hot cake within mins. Kalyana Seva will get two 300 Rs tickets).

5.       After that – next week was full-fledged travel – refer the photo in Google album for full details. I can never forget the driving experience at Sigandhoor.

a.       Most of the places we covered, had opened up just Sunday of that week

b.       In Udupi, we enjoyed having darshan of the Lord multiple times. Even met my fav pravachana acharya – Vidwan Krishnaraja Kuthpadi.

c.       At Anegudde and Hattiangady temple, the Maha puja was done right when we arrived. Anegudde Ganapati even blessed us with Flower prasada during puja.

d.       DOUBLE LUNCH – yes, my first ever double lunch experience. At Kundapura, we had nice North Indian lunch at NR Nandini restaurant. After that we reached Hattiangady, where after the puja, we had Lunch prasada of the Lord!

6.       Met Varadh Maam, Vignesh Nayak Maam, got so many pujas done.

7.       June 13^th till Aug 8^th – passed like a movie trailer. What was happening, who was controlling…

 

Return Tickets

1.       The sad part of any vacation – returning.

2.       Etihad had cancelled all its flight operation -Thankfully. I got free cancellation and full refund for my July 27^th flight. I called up my office and requested to extend my leave by one more week – till 8^th Aug.

3.       Returning to US in August is costly affair – as the schools reopen in the month of Aug. Tickets were selling at an avg price of 1.2 Lacs per head!! Even that was difficult to book.

4.       Sat down to book the tickets on 5^th Aug. Nothing was available for less than 1.5 lacs. And I couldn’t book that also as I didn’t have such balance limit on India credit card, and on US cards I was not able to get the OTPs sent to US number.

5.       Got fully tensed. What next? I had promised to return on 8^th Aug to my company. Called up one manager and described the situation. He said he will try to get approval for me to work from India for a month, within which I will have to book my tickets and travel back. And I’ve to work in night shits (US shifts) during that one month.

6.       Though it looked like a solution, I was worried with the side-effects of working night shifts. Entire Day was spent contemplating various scenarios.

 

Finally

7.       Friday morning – God made me to give it a shot early morning itself. Thankfully it worked – was able to book tickets for 50k per head on British Airways!!

8.       So, here I’m. Breaking my own record set just 2 months back (onward journey tickets were booked a week before). International flight tickets were booked 2 days before the travel date, at economical price!

9.       Thankfully, UK had just announced on 6^th Aug that they will allow fully vaccinated transit passengers from 4a.m on 8^th Aug. My BA flight reaches London at 1.30 pm on 8^th Aug – this fits the definition of hair gap?

 

Covid lockdowns & hardships:

1.       First 2 weeks, there was partial lockdown in place – during which we got most of the Govt/other official works done – Bank, Lockers, Visa stamping.

2.       From 3^rd week onwards, Lockdown was relaxed up to 90% - during which we completed all the pilgrimages, Homa (can never forget the divine experience of sitting at late night Homa at Ravindra Acharya’s home at Udupi), shopping, doctor visits etc.

3.       Last week – Lockdown/curfew was reimposed on weekends – impacted us only for one day i.e. 7^th of Aug. 8^th of Aug anyways we traveled back to US.

4.       So all in all, Lockdown was not a major issue for us during the trip, except that we had to get the torturous RT-PCR test done before any flight journeys, Jingu included.

5.       During the month of May, when strict lockdown was being imposed Pan India, I had told myself that I’m ready to sit idly at home. For the entire vac. No matter what, I will travel. Only point of anxiety though was visa stamping. For that too I was trying prepare my mind – I had taken all imp stuff like files, documents etc. with me.

The entire trip was nothing less than a divine experience. What seemed like problems at several steps, were getting solved by itself. And each time it got solved, I was reminded of Gita lessons – we have to just keep going through it all, wherever the Lord takes us, completely detached from fears, illusions, anxiety, worry etc.

GURU BRAHMA

I was probably a 9th grader, when I bought a book on Lord Krishna during the visit/book exhibition by ISKCON at our “Sri Cauvery School”, Mysore. The book had a dark pink cover with a cute photo of Lord Krishna on it. I fell in instant love with that book from the day I got it. When I started reading it, I didn’t rush to read the book like a novel. Rather, I was reading one chapter at a time slowly, like how we eat our favorite dish or sweet - one small bite at a time. The only worry I had while reading the book was - I will be done reading the book sooner or later… what to do after that?

This book was actually my second unforgettable Krishna Experience. The first one happened way back  when I was still in middle school (somewhere between 6th to 7th grade). Shri Ramananda Sagar’s “SRI KRISHNA '' serial was being telecast on National Channel every Sunday 9am. I still remember the first scene(photo) in that title song - Lord Krishna in His Shesha Shayana position (Sleeping on Serpent bed with Hand supporting the head). Such was my enthusiasm to watch that Serial that I sat in front of TV at the right time, making sure not to miss even the Title song (which was my favorite).

I have created another blog post before this, in which I narrated my Krishna experience that happened in recent times during Janmashtami of 2020 (Sharvari Samvatsara). In that post I tried to put down the logic behind deciding the Krishna Janmashtami date every year. I gained that knowledge from a very popular, humble and very renowned scholar who had mastered vedanta and had excellent knowledge of Sanskrit, Kannada & Tulu. A Guru who everyone lovingly referred to by his birthplace name. Yes, I’m talking about Vidya Vachaspati Shri. Bannanje Govindacharya. This Post is dedicated to him. Lord Krishna gave me my recent Krishna experiences through this Guru.

Lord Krishna says in Geeta that he ensures the survival and propagation of Spiritual knowledge by sending the Gyaanis & Gurus at the right interval. Several such esteemed devotees of the Lord have taken birth in the past and it will continue in future too. Shri Bannanje definitely belongs to that class of the Lord’s devotees. When the divine Swamiji of Udupi, Sri Vidyamanya Tirtharu himself bestowed the title of Vidya Vachaspati on his favorite disciple, one can imagine the depth of Knowledge that Sri Bannaje had gained from his devotion to Lord. He was certainly a walking encyclopedia. Though very late, I certainly don’t want to miss dedicating a post for this Guru of mine, who gave me Krishna experience in recent times, who illuminated the lamp of Krishna inside me, who made me a dasa of Sri Madhwacharya. I can go on… 

Lord Krishna helps the lesser mortals like us to come in contact with these Gurus & get enlightened spiritually. Purandara Dasaru has rightly said - “Gurugala Gulama aguva tanaka Doreyadanna Mukuti” - One cannot attain Moksha without becoming a slave of a spritual Guru. The very fact that Lord helped me to know about this Guru and listen to some of his discourses makes me so happy and sends a divine shiver down the spine. Thus I categorize this divine experience as Krishna experience (Just like the book, the TV serial and the Krishna Janmashtami experience of 2020).

I must say that i was his digital Shishya. I got to know about him from youtube and listened to his discourses via Youtube channel only. Over the past couple of years that I listened to his discourses over youtube, I would  list down a few unique qualities that I observed in him:

1. He never refers to any book during discourse. Whether it is Bhagavad Geeta or any Puranas, he has the relevant slokas on his tongue tip. Very rare to see any vidwans who come with no  book in hand for giving discourse.

2. Straight-on-the face talk. Doesn’t sugar coat anything to please anyone. Never mind calling a spade a spade, no matter who the person is. 

3. Blends science with Vedanta and explains the concepts of vedanta logically. Thus he was popular among all age groups. He never used to follow something just because “it is followed like this from the past”. Some interesting examples to quote:

1. “Can Females chant Vishnu Sahasranama?”
   Why? Females don’t have mouths? Please do not follow advice of someone who cannot give you a valid scientific reason.

2. “Can we chant Gayatri Mantra 12 thousand times daily?”
   Better to limit it to 2k-3k per day. Your body cannot withstand chanting it beyond that.
   (I recommend the readers to watch his discourse for more details on this)

4. Though he belongs to the Madhwa Brahmin community and has mastered the works of Sri Madhwacharya, he had profound knowledge on the works of other 2 great acharyas of south india - Sri Sankaracharya &  Sri Ramanujacharya.

5. He used to always come to discourses wearing Kurta and white Dhoti. He used to say that Vedanta is about removing the clothes that cover our Gnana. Why should one worry about the attire of the pancha bhautika body. 

Due to all these unique qualities in him, he attracted many youngsters to his discourses which helped them to get right knowledge about our ancient scriptures. He always used to say in discourses that Knowledge is important. Lack of knowledge is the root cause of misery and confusion among people. That is the reason why Lord Krishna gave the Geeta to this world and later incarnated as Veda vyasa to further simplify the knowledge contained in the sacred texts. One of the  favorite quotes of Acharya was ‘Iruva Sampattalla; Iruvina Arivu Sampattu”. Loosely translated, it means “Existence is not wealth; Awareness of existence is real wealth”. And the real awareness of existence comes from the knowledge.

For a person who has contributed so much to the spiritual world, this blog hardly tries to scratch the surface. What justice can a 2 page blog post give to such a towering personality who has delivered more 30,000 hrs of discourses (and many other un official discourses), has written several books, written screenplays and dialogues  for movies on acharyas and made many other contributions to the spiritual world.

I feel very fortunate and happy to tell anyone that I was also one of the several youngsters that got influenced through his discourses. After starting my spiritual journey by listening to acharya’s pravachanas, for more than a year or so, I listened to only his pravachana. It was only after a year that I slowly started listening to other Pravachana Vidwans. But Bannanje acharya holds a special place in my heart.

Such a great personality passed away on 13th of December 2020 creating a void in the world of Sanskrit and Vedanta Vidwans. When Rekha broke the news early in the morning on 14th of Dec, I felt a pain pass through the core of my soul. For 2 days, all I spoke about was only about him.  The sense of loss gripped me for a few days. But then I had one thing to console me - the treasure of his discourses available on youtube. Listening to his voice makes me feel that he has not left us. He is still around us imparting the knowledge of Vedanta. I read in the news that he was working on a book that reconciles the teaching of all the 3 great Acharyas on Bhagavad Geeta.  He had completed working till 8 chapters. His death leaves that book incomplete. I felt really bad about this. This work would have bridged the gap in knowledge among the following of the 3 acharyas and would have helped bring all of them closer and work as one community. 

I end this post with one small special note - just 2-3 weeks before the passing away of the Great Acharya, I had told Rekha that whenever we visit Udupi in future, it would be great if we come across Acharya there. I will definitely take blessings and photos with him!  Never imagined that this wish will remain unfulfilled.

Update: 13th Aug 2021: Though the wish of meeting Shri Bannanje Acharya was not filled, God didn't disappoint me. He gave me the opportunity to meet another favorite Guru of mine - Vidwan Shri Krishnaraja Kuthpudi at Udupi itself! How divine. I took his blessings and got a couple of photos with him.