SABARIMALA: While most of people are gasping for breath after climbing the Sabarimala hill, the tale of this polio infected person who was carried by his friends all the way atop the hill for the darshan of Lord Ayyappa is awe inspiring. Verisetti Venugopal, 33, from Ongole in Prakasham district of Andhra Pradesh was carried by five of his friends to the Sabarimala hill traversing more than five km for a darshan of Lord Ayyappa. After reaching the Sannidhanam, he was assisted by Govindaswamy of the Ayyappa Seva Sanghom for having the darshan of the Lord.
Mr Venugopal is polio infected right from his birth and he can only move with the help of a walking stick assisted by someone. When this newspaper met him after his Darshan, his friends were standing in queue to get a darshan. Five of his friends who carried him atop the hill including Venkateswaralu, Narasimha Rao, Balagoraway and Srinu were in the queue. It is his fifth visit to Sabarimala for the pilgrimage.
“The first time was in 2003, and then I used to visit the shrine once in two years. I told them my desire to visit the shrine and to have a darshan of the Lord. They are always happy to carry me here,” he told this newspaper. On earlier occasions too he was carried manually to the temple by his friends. Mr Venugopal operates a cool bar in his home village and the friends who carried him are his village mates. He is married and has three children. They came in a car all the way from his home village and are scheduled to leave after the darshan.
