Pondicherry
- Chennai – Madurai
Aim
– Reunion with an old friend !!
So I decided to visit the Tam land and filter coffee
after a lot of coordination with a lot of people. Airfares were good and so
seemed my plan. I was eyeing the pictures of Madurai Meenakshi temple for quite
a few months and the painted ceilings were too inviting to resist. Realized
that there were too many interesting places around Chennai and in Tamil Nadu
but alas tickets were book and time was of the essence.
I read somewhere – behind every successful plan is a
chat with ur girlfriends; so was it in my case.
After booking Chennai and Madurai tickets, I upon
having an after thought was cribbing to a friend, as to why I ignored
Pondicherry; so this dear friend of mine has spent a considerable number of
years in Chennai - suggested me to take a day trip to Pondy and my other dear
friend adding fuel to the fiery idea rescheduled the Madurai going tickets and
was kind enough to offer her reliable driver and car ensuring my safety as I would
head off to Pondy the moment I landed.
I took the morning flight to Chennai, reaching there
before 9:00am, and the driver took me straight to Pondy. It was a 2:30 hours
drive with a pit stop for a filter coffer break, until we reach our first stop
at Auroville Village, where an artist on campus awaited to take me around. It
was luscious green and colourful flowery place, spreading a sense of peace and
curiosity and to my good luck Chennai dint stand up to its reputation of having
a sticky and sultry weather on the contrary there was a slight drizzle. I chose
to take the 2km walk to the Auroville Matrimandir Golden Temple viewpoint since
I had missed the chance to go inside as it closes by noon. The walk was
pleasant and I came across many unusual trees, which seemed like they loved to
hug each other and many flowering trees and plants. At every few meters there
were Stone hedges painted with flowers and their significance placed reassuring
us that we are on the right track. There were beautiful huge trees having their
barks hanging to the floor and well rooted. The viewpoint of the Matrimadir
area is very serene and I sat under the trees on the bench to absorb the
positivity. The amphi theatre and the holy tree next to the Matrimadir are
visible from there. The wind had its presence and so did the Sun by now and my
stomach growled for something yummy but only this time we hopped onto one of
their shuttle busses, which took us back to the main area. We decided to go
have lunch at the Auroville Village restaurant, which dint let us down and we
had a Pizza, a ratatouille and a veg pie, which were rewarding and delicious. It
was lovely and a lucky day as the monthly pottery exhibition was going on and I
must say that it’s a must see as the cutest curios and things which I could
never imagine to be made out of clay were made and sold there and I did
modestly get some. I looked around at the museum and the few shops (bought the
wooden handcrafted dolls which are exclusively made there) before I left
Auroville with a promise to return someday.
My next drive was to the Pondy city center where I
first went to the Aurobindo Ashram and then drove through the French Colonies.
By which time I needed to slow down and relax so sat down at a very French Cafe
called the Café de’ Art which had a bright view, a collection of lovely coffee
table books and a life size cut out of the south indian super star Mr.
Rajnikant to add to the zing. After that nice rejuvenating hot cup of masala
chai it was time to treat myself with some famous Pondy dessert at Baker Street
where I opted for a fresh strawberry tart. After all that indulgence it was
time to get back to exploring Pondy and I hit the Beach so we went to the White
Town Beach. It was time for sunset and the
walk on the beach relaxed my feet after a long day and it was time to hit another café to
sit back with my fav green tea and a book with the perfect background music of
the waves and the wind. An absolute picture perfect day. Alas it was time for me to prepare to leave and as I head to back to the car I stumbled at Anokhi Boutique who after seeing my taste also guided me to another lovely
boutique where I got beautiful block printed cotton dresses. After all the indulgence of yummy treats and shopping in a lovely new city I formally called it a day and head back to
Chennai - a much happier person.
Next morning I was treated to some authentic South
Indian breakfast with dossas and idlys and the filter coffee. I then went to Anokhi and Amethyst boutiques which are a must go for people who
appreciate art – may that be clothing or paintings or accessories and yes it
has a wonderful café too.
A nice day passed by in Chennai and it was time to
take the train to Madurai that night and the Chennai Station was architecturally elegant and shouted out the British influence but also was
relatively clean to my surprise. It was a late night train and we reached
Madurai early next morning, in good time to check into our hotel and get
ready for the morning Pooja at the temple.
As we walked towards the temple I was having goosbumps.
My Tamil friend knowing the place inside out could translate all the stories
that the poojaris told us. The grandeur of the temple was magnificent. After
the pooja I sat there enchanted looking at the high intricately painted
ceilings with perfectly aligned carvings and architecture, wondering how people
back in the olden days without the support of technology managed to imagine and create such wonders. Madurai Meenakshi Temple as the name
suggests is a Goddess Parvati’s Temple primarily with having a Shiva temple in
it. There are spectacular images carved of Lord Shiva and Parvathi depicting
various stories. There is a 1000 pillar enclosure with Lord Natraj idol area
within the big temple campus which is beautiful along with a mini museum. I have seem such temples in Hampi but this was just perfect and one would have only seen it in movie sets. There is a parking lot with ceilings as high as 50ft which are locked and latched well and some of them even today have the Lordess's rides parked in such as the chariots. It is said that the lordess's army with huge horses, elephant and chariots used to be parked in. Further there is a grand huge hall with the ceiling very intricately and symmetrically carved in wood with a border or wooden frames arranged having various paintings orderly painted within them. The Mandapan at the end of the room is said to be the place where the Lord Shiva and Parvati had got married and Lord Vishnu had given her away. Even today every year the wedding of the idols takes place there. Just the day before we reached was a festival at the temple as I read it
We proceeded to the Murugan (Lord Shiva and
Parvati’s elder son) Temple who is a popular deity in southern parts of India,
which is about an hour away from the main Meenakshi Devi Temple. About 5 mins
ahead there is a Vishnu temple, which has similar carvings as that of the
Meenakshi Temple. Just at the entrance of the temple the ceiling has a
beautiful bright painting of Lord Vishnu along with Lordess Lakshmi and if you
spend time you can see the complete Mahabharatha carved on the walls inside. It is clear that even Lordess Paravati kept her brother Lord Vishnu in close proximity.
After this we went to the Mahaal as they say it there which is pretty much an abandoned palace. It is one of the most royal palace structure's I have seen.
The Mysore Palace is well kept but for a palace, not having the financial support or any infrastructure, this palace archaeologically and architecturally stood very tall, grand (would be an understatement) and royal (as it would have been back in the day). I loved the palace - it has a huge centre courtyard with very tall pillars all around it and the tall ceilings are painted brightly. The palace has a huge room where there use to be performances and the intricate carvings are breathtaking. It is a pity that such a magnificent structure is being ignored and left unattended to delapitate slowly. Besides the little finance that they get from selling tickets there are shootings that happened rarely. The ceilings, the pillars, the hight, the carvings, the coloured glass and everything about the Mahaal was royal and I just sat there to breath and thanked my stars to have brought me there and my friend ofcourse.
There are many known nice places to eat and stay in
Madurai. South Indian food isn’t bad at all, we had a scrumptious South
Indian meal thali for lunch which was sufficient to keep us going all day.
The Madurai Airport is new and very comfortable to
be traveling into or out off - so yet another day in a new city was absolutely
satisfying. We were back in Chennai late that night and it was time for me to enjoy some urban life drama. I finally met my friend and did what one can
do, in one day, in the City of Chennai – like visiting the ECR beach side and
flocking myself at this very green and easygoing boutique restaurant called the
Amethyst- where shopping, dining, catching up and relaxing was all included.The best part about it is the lawn are where you will invariably find some happy flowers fallen on the tables from the trees in the compound. I had to say goodbye to this beautiful city and my friends to catch a flight back to the good old Hyderabad.
No comments:
Post a Comment