Temple Trips And Food Walks!
Recently, I went on a family trip to a small
pilgrimage spot in southern Tamilnadu, which has a lot of emotions connected
with me , Tenkasi. The trip to the ‘ Kasi of the south’ was amazing! The temple
town is encircled by the Western Ghats in three sides, and you get an amazing
and picturesque view. Yes, we are a big family and we did not have space to
accommodate in an Innova. So, my dad hired a mini-bus to explore the very small
streets of Tenkasi. Man, drivers must be very skilled to drive in streets as
small as these in Tenkasi!
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| The family hangout! |
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| told'ya! |
The temple wind mystery was what detectives should
really find out about! When you are about to enter the temple, the wind blows
against you. But when you enter the temple, the wind pushes you towards the
shrine! This is an architectural marvel! Doing something like this without any
visible thing is incredible! The Vishwanath of the south was amazing!
Outstanding! The beauty of the temple amazes me! Next, the family elephant. I bet no one has
ever had a family elephant which was stone! His name is Ganesh Natrajan. His
nickname is Gantulu, (nickname courtesy: Dad) and we love him very much!
Next, sivasailam.
This temple too has amazed me. In fact, all the temples I have visited
in this trip has amazed me!
This temple has 3 spectacular things as I know.
First, the Nandi. This particular Nandi is perfect. Well, almost perfect. You see,
Legend has it that this Nandi was made by Vishwakarma, the architect of the
gods himself! This Nandi was so perfect that it came to life! But, they wanted
a statue and created a small imperfection, a small line which you can still see
today!
Secondly, Paramakalyani. The goddess, Ambal in this
temple, also called Paramakalyani,is exquisitely beautiful. She is second only
to Gandhimati, who is also very beautiful and is the consort of Nellaiappar in
Tirunelveli.
Third, the Lingam. This lingam is said to be ‘
Swayambhu’, formed naturally, without any help of chisel!
This temple is usually very empty, but at
times, it
can get a little crowd. It was an amazing experience!
Now, the Nellai Appar temple. This temple is a very
authentic temple with a lot of usage of wood and stone. The Shrine was
beautiful. I mean the real shrine. There is the old- the real shrine and a new
one if you didn’t know! The new shrine is also amazing but the old one really
attracted me. The woodwork and the carving was a marvel which people of that
age have done easily. Overall, I couldn’t
explore much, as it was a marvel and it took minimum of 2 days to explore the
temple properly, with a guide.
I may have bored you by talking about so many
temples. Next comes the topic I was waiting for, Food!
Tenkasi is worth coming to only for Podi Roast! Now,
don’t tell me you don’t know Podi Roast! Podi Roast is Indian fried pancakes
with podi stuffed inside the dosa.
Now, the famous Tirunelveli halwa! The halwa shop
called Iruttu kadai Halwa is always crowded for the halwa which they are famous
for! By the way, halwas are sweet confections served across Asia!
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| Amazing end to a amazing trip!! |
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| Wondrous temple in a wondrous city! |
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