Temples, Palaces and Idiots!

When I visited Madurai for the first time I was mesmerized by the beauty of Meenakshi, the elegance of Azhagar, the magnificent Murugan at Pazhmudir Cholai and finally, the marvel of the Thirumalai Nayakkar palace. I was enchanted by the sheer brilliance of all architects and artisans who helped in the construction of the following places. I just never wanted to go back to my regular life when I was at this city!

I was around third grade when I first visited the city and I wanted to feel mesmerized by visiting Madurai again, but I never got the chance to do so until almost eighth grade, before my term exams. My cousins from the U.S.A. had come to visit us and they wanted to visit Guruvayoor. I did not have any problem with their wish but I suggested a slightly better place. Yes, you all guessed it, Madurai, and my cousins enthusiastically agreed. We had agreed to visit Pazhani on the way back home, as none of us had visited Pazhani before. They were here for only a week, so we had to plan accordingly. The schedule was that we will visit whatever we can at Madurai for a day and then the next day go to Pazhani and then come back home. Quite a hectic schedule, but I will take it!

We had hired a cab the day before the trip started and we had asked for the driver to arrive at our home at around 6:30 am and then we would pick up our cousins and then depart for Madurai! We did precisely that. We reached Madurai at around 12:30 pm and checked in at Hotel Chentoor. The hotel had six floors and a rooftop – restaurant and I had a fear of heights or acrophobia, so I felt Goosebumps whenever I used either the lift or the stairs!

The hotel was really close to the Meenakshi Amman temple complex, so we thought that we will reach the temple in almost no time! But, we were proven wrong. The amount of traffic there was incredible! I immediately take back my words about staying here! In around ten minutes we reached the parking area of the west gate. {The temple is so huge that it has four entrances; one in the northern, southern, eastern and western directions, respectively. Welcome!}  One of the biggest mistakes we did in our entire lives was to come to the temple during the rush – season, by which I mean THE GREAT DECEMBER – JANUARY SEASON when all kinds of people come and spoil yourtravelling experience. This would cost us dearly later at Pazhani, but I will explain in detail later.

The long waits are so worth it!

 

We were originally planning to visit the Thirumalai Nayakkar palace, but we decided against it as we were tired and needed some rest. We were glad we did that as we saw the crowd at temple! Imagine us making our way to the palace, seeing the architectural beauty of the place, then the temple in this season! After beating the queue using our currency, we got the chance to stand the closest to the deity and there she was! Holding a parrot in her right hand, wearing a beautiful and gorgeous Ombadhugajam {Nine – yards Sari}, looking divine. I finally felt mesmerized again, like I always wanted to. Once again, I couldn’t have a proper darshan of Meenakshi’s husband, Sundareshwarar, but fate had one more darshan in store for me and my dad. We wanted to make our way through the south gate, but my cousin got dehydrated very badly. We were asked to see the size of crowd there so that we could decide whether we could pass or not.

We were just passing through Nandi, the Vahana of lord Shiva, when the guard supervising the crowd told us to stop. We were surprised why he did that. We turn around and see the puja of Nandi, for which many people were waiting for hours! I felt that this was fated to happen. After getting out of the temple, we literally hunted for a restaurant for two hours! This is when the annoying cycle begins. Guys, I have to tell you one thing. I hate the Madurai Municipal Corporation for one simple reason. Lack of responsibility. They run the third largest city of Tamil Nadu with sheer ineptitude. They convert clear one ways into two ways and clear two ways into a one way. Due to this I couldn’t have food at Murugan Idly Kadai. Well anyway, the next day we headed to the Thirumalai Nayakkar
palace, to relive the history of the Nayaks of Madurai. Here is where another body of Madurai messed up, this time the Architectural and Archaeological department Of Madurai. They let a flock of pigeons pee over the land, which is understandable, but this!?!

Sam and Sandhu, I hope you die!

 

It is unacceptable! I am very annoyed and unsatisfied by the way they handle things here in Madurai. Everything is so clumsily done here, but I can’t complain! Anyway, the architecture was beautiful. I actually stumbled upon some paintings which are believed to be Chola paintings. They were very different from the sculptures of a warrior in the palace! This proves the non – Tamil ancestry of the Madurai Nayaks!

Beautiful, aren't they?

They're beautiful as well!

We couldn’t spend a lot of time at the palace as we had to visit Pazhani but I must say I had a lot of fun and I definitely recommend this place to anyone who visits Madurai! Guys, on a side note we passed the Dindigul bypass twice and my cousin was amused by the word ‘Dindu’ he would start shouting ‘Dindugull’ when we would pass the Dindigul bypass, so I found really funny whenever he said that. Back to the topic we made our way to Pazhani only to get disappointed. The reason is that we have peculiar means of transport to the temple.  One way to reach the temple was the ‘Winch’ transport which is like a hybrid between a bus and a train which moves step by step as your heart pounds for every second of the ride. The other means of transport is the rope car. The problem, again was the GREAT DECEMBER – JANUARY SEASON where you have lunch hours during the afternoon for staff and you had to wait for three hours for a ride. Yes, we could not visit Pazhani, but it is just down the road from Coimbatore when you look at it that way! Well, that concluded my great, grand trip to Madurai from Coimbatore. It was a pleasure visiting you Madurai! I will definitely come back to feel mesmerized again. Until Then!

Before you leave, check out the throne of Thirumalai Nayakkar! I would want to own one of those!

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P.S: My cousin Nikhil Iyer is also into blogging, just like me! He posts his blogs on a regular basis at http://nikhiliyer.weebly.com/. He is also currently working on a blog about this trip on his channel. Make sure to check it out!  
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