Our ‘program’ at Vijaywada is part of Pilgrimage and
youth festival here. As part of the youth festival, schools were here and
putting up a performance on the stage every half an hour from 9am to 4pm. There
was even an exhibition in the building behind the tent. And it felt like whole
town was here to be part of the program. There must have been about 3000 people
here and it was cool to get to address such a large gathering. They even called
us back again in the evening to honour us.
We get on stage and they introduce our team and explain
about our journey. What is amazing to me is that we’re strangers up here to the
whole audience. We don’t speak the same language. They’ve never heard of us before and will probably never see us again, but they are just so accepting and appreciative of everything
we’re putting out there to them. It really is something to be cheered on by
this mass of people in front of us. I realized, they are all individual people out there in the
crowd, each one of them. But when they’re together, like they are now, they’re actually all one. That’s what we can see from where we
are.
They put up some dances and Ravi and Joice decide to join.
Hehehe! It was sooooo funny to watch!
We got so much appreciation, even a local news channel
gave us some air time!
We take a quick glance at the exhibition before heading
off for lunch. It was as standard student exhibitions are. But we found these
which were just too cool to ignore..
In the middle of the day, we go to visit the Gundala
Matha Shrine close by which is at the top of this huge hill. We start climbing
the zig zag road thing and it must have taken like half an hour to reach, but
it was totally worth it. The steepness of the roads and the hairpin bends was
reminiscent of Shillong. The degree of incline was probably like 45 degrees or
more. Gotta give credit to Sister, without an ‘uff’ she roughed it out and even left some of the rest of us
behind. Her energy on this trip has been exemplary and more than an inspiration
to a lot of us.
We reach the top and sit for a bit to catch our breath.
The view is phenomenal! You can pretty much see the whole city from here. The
expanse and the lights and all.. Ahhhhh..
There’s a huge line to pray at the shrine, and Father
Vinay takes us like chief guests through the Priests privileged back entry and
hold a short prayer service as people look on. Solomon decided to continue on
beyond the shrine and climb the rest of the mountain/hill to the top. He leaves
his chappal behind and we had decided
to move back down before he returned. We couldn’t get through on the phone to
tell him, and he ended up climbing all
the way down barefoot. Talk about devotion..
A view from the ground:
In the evening we go back to the main stage of the pilgrimage,
where we spoke about the yatra and the people were so in awe that we were
travelling all over the country and spreading the message of peace and making a
change and standing up to take action for what you believe in. They honoured us
with their love and acceptance and the embracing of our message.
This young singer Bolimetla Benjamin was featured in the
festival and was singing a beautiful parable about a youth who is sold by his
brothers and overcoming that pain. He related it with the situations and
circumstances of today and how deeply it affects the youth.
Then Rakesh went on stage and appreciated Benjamin and
his song and how relevant it was, and Benjamin sang it once again and dedicated
it to us. It was so special..
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