Hyderabad, April 26: Around 5.10 p.m., Sri Lakshmi, a housewife, was anxiously searching for the names of her family members on the reservation chart pasted on the S6 coach of Puttaparthi special train at Secunderabad railway station.
Another person, N Sivanand, with a ticket in hand, was eagerly asking the Ticket Collector (TC) whether his ticket was confirmed or not.
Both are devotees of Satya Sai Baba and were keen to go to Puttaparthi to catch a final glimpse of the Baba, who passed away on Sunday.
Platform No 8 of the Secunderabad Railway Station reverberated with hymns and chanting of ‘Jai Satya Sai Baba’ as the special train left for Puttaparthi carrying hundreds of devotees on Monday.
With the South Central Railway running special train services from Secunderabad station to Puttaparthi, hundreds of devotees descended on the platform along with their children and family members.
“We wanted to have a final look at Baba. News of his passing away is still unbelievable,” said Parvathi, a house wife and devotee of Baba.
A resident of Ramanthapur, she added that it would not be the last journey to Puttaparthi. “We will continue to visit Puttaparthi even later to offer prayers,” she said.
“We want to touch Baba’s feet….don’t know when the train will arrive in Puttaparthi,” said another anxious devotee Sri Lakshmi who was heading to Puttaparthi along with her mother-inlaw.
“All my family members are ardent devotees of Baba. I have been worshipping Baba since I was a child,” she added.
The situation at the railway station turned chaotic as soon as the train pulled in.
Devotees were unsure whether their seats were confirmed or not and there was a lot of confusion as there were no coach numbers on the train.
It was only about half-an-hour later that the coach numbers were allotted.
A similar situation prevailed at the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) as a large number of Baba’s devotees gathered to board the special buses.
A 17-year-old student, C Srinivasa Reddy, a native of Anantapur who boarded a special bus at MGBS, said that the moment he came to know of Baba’s death, he wanted to rush to Puttaparthi.
“I came here to attend an interview. My family members have already arrived at Puttaparthi and I am also keen to go there for a final look. I am very passionate about Baba’s ideology,” he said.
–Agencies