Kishore 

During Nov 2000 we had to make a very sudden and expected long road journey. We had planned to vacation in my native place Rajahmundry. The morning we reached there, we came to know that my father-in-law expired because of sudden heart attack. We were very unhappy and added to that we have to travel 600 kms to Anantapur which is not well connect by train. We had no option but to take a taxi to make it to Anatapur as early as possible.

 It is a journey so unexpected and we were not sure how risky such a journey would be. I have never traveled such a distance by car till that time and certainly we didn’t know how our daughter who is less than 4 years old would cope up with such a strenuous journey.

When we started out on the 18 hours journey at 1 PM we prayed to Lord Hanuman that he protect us and take us safely to our destination. Lord heard our prayers and protected us throughout the journey. When we got into the highway I saw one lorry going ahead of us as escort which has ‘Jai Hanuman’ written on the rear of the vehicle. I kept checking the road and I found every 10 minutes or so I would come across at least one lorry on which name of Lord hanuman is written. This made me feel that we were being protected and our journey would be safe. Besides this we also found at least once in an hour a temple of Lord Hanuman en-route and we used to do our pranamams in our heart.

We also had to cross slightly dangerous Ghat roads in the middle of the night. These roads are robbery prone zones and police protection is provided on these roads for a few vehicle that go together. Luckily we reached in time to catch a ‘escorted batch of vehicles’. We traveled continuously through the night except for the halts for a tea or dinner.

Throughout the journey my daughter also remained composed and my wife who is prone to ‘motion sickness’ didn’t experience any problem.

And as were reaching our destination, I got another doubt in my mind. If Lord Hanuman’s protection during our journey is real, the next lorry that would come will have Lord’s name on it. And indeed the next lorry again had the name of Lord Hanuman. I felt ashamed for getting such a doubt and told myself that never doubt Lord’s blessings. If possible count the blessings and increase your faith in the Lord.

Jai Sriram, Jai Hanuman