Bethel Lodge (standard:travel stories, 2955 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Aug 20 2011	Views/Reads: 3223/2116	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Young Juggernaut experiences while visiting temple town 'Tirupathi' and Meteropolitan City 'Madras' or 'Chennai' with his cousin Laxman.

Bethel Lodge 

Subba Rao 

Visiting maternal uncle and grandmother in Hyderabad in summer 

was only vacation Juggernaut with siblings experienced each year away 

from their home.  The carefree vacation lasted almost two months 

intosummer each year since Juggernaut knows himself until he was in 

late teens. Unable to leave his medical practice for such a long time, 

Juggernaut's father joined his family only at the end of the vacation 

to bring his family back home. Over a period of time during the annual 

summer vacations, Juggernaut learned from his cousins how to ride a 

bicycle, fly a kite, and tasted meat and beer for the very first time 

and learned to understand local language of Urdu. 

On occasions, Juggernaut visited his paternal uncle living in 

a nearby town on weekends. The trip was short, just over 30 miles; as 

the bus enters the small countryside town, the air was full of sweet 

sugarcane that predominate the fields on both sides of the road. In the 

small town known for producing sugar Juggernaut's uncles was well known 

doctor.  He was as protective of his children as Juggernaut's father; 

nevertheless, Juggernaut enjoyed spending time with his cousins on 

weekend trips under the strict supervision of his uncle. 

Unexpectedly, one day Juggernaut's father announced that 

Juggernaut with his older brother Srinivas were taking a trip with 

their cousin Laxman to  Holy City ‘Tirupathi' to visit Lord 

Venketeswara and then travel to nearby metropolitan city of Madras (now 

Chennai). Juggernaut was then in early teens and his brother Srinivas 

was 3 years older than him; cousin Laxman was 25 years older than both 

Srinivas and Juggernaut.  Apparently Laxman was planning to make a 

pilgrimage to visit Lord Venketeswara and Juggernaut's father in spite 

of his over-protective tendencies trusted his nephew Laxman to take 

along his two young sons to the Holy place ‘Tirupathi.' 

Juggernaut and Srinivas were excited about the trip though 

were not sure about cousin Laxman; unlike with other cousins they never 

spent that much time with him. On occasions, Laxman visited his uncle 

particularly when he needed free medical care for his family. It was 

only on those occasions, Juggernaut and his older brother Srinivas met 

cousin Laxman.  Armed with an aura of self confidence, Laxman spoke 

softly and on occasions burst into a loud laughter while listening to 

others. 


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