Madurai is about 3 hours away from Tirunelveli so when we had a free Sunday before the semi final Jyo ad i decided to hire a cab and visit the famous Meenakshi temple. Tanay and Tanmay joined us and the four of us set off early - 630 or so - in a sedan driven by a most interesting chap. We chatted on the way to Madurai and stopped en route at a nice little chai joint which served nice chai.
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| Coffee shop! |
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| Boiler! |
Further down the road we stopped at a lovely place called Saravana Bhava which served some nice breakfast. I happened to leave my phone on the table when I went to the wash room when our driver gave the first sign of what he was capable of - he spotted my black phone on the black granite and quickly secured it proving that he has the eyes of a hawk and the awareness of James Bond!
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| Nice drive - blue skies, green country |
We entered Madurai and I could not but fall in love with Madura College and its beautiful campus and cricket grounds where a cricket match was in progress. We called the good doctor who was helping us get a darshan and he met us at a place close to the temple and took us in - minus phones - cell phones are not allowed in the temple. This is where our driver showed how good he was - he parked his car at breakneck speed and joined us upfront - beating us to the darshan. I have not seen anyone slicker than this at slipping through. He is the slickest job I have seen in a long time.
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| Cricket match at Madura College |
We walked right in, led by the temple elephant's mahout's son, first to the Meenakshi temple which is the correct way - and then to the Lord Sivan temple. The temple is huge with four huge dwarams with hundreds of images carved on it, a tank full of water, a huge Ganesha idol, long corridors, many idols and small kovils. Thanks to the good doctor we got some VIP treatment and were right up front for darshan. We took a picture at the one designated spot where a person takes a pic with the dwaram at the back for a 100 bucks or so. The good doctor would not let us pay!
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| Colorful images on bus - all buses are like that |
The day being Sunday there was considerable crowd. Also there was some kind of a protest by the differently abled about a recent incident and also about facilities for them. We waited until they finished their darshan.
From the temple we went to the elephant Parvathi and she blessed us. Off we went then outside the temple with some prasadam and stuff they gave us, a coffee and it was only 1030. Our plans of bingeing on some delectable non-vegetarian food that Madurai is famous for went up in smoke as we did not want to wait for a couple of hours. I asked the doctor what Madurai was famous for and he said idlis - apparently idli and fish curry is a sought after combination here.
We headed back tired and satisfied. One break for chai and then back at the hotel for lunch!
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