Navaraathri

I spent the pooja holidays in a lot of travel. I am surprised that me and my relatives actually *DID* it. Wagon-R, a small segment car from the popular car manufacturer Maruthi was our 'Vaahana' :-) Why I was surprised we did , because we were 5 adults and 1 kid with the boot so full, it was blocking the rear view. One of them was the driver ( he hardly drove ). To start giving you an idea about what we covered, we did about 1500 Kms in all.

Me and my cousin left from Bangalore in his car to Salem. We stopped over at my aunt's place, woke up the next morning and left straight to Rameshwaram. Visited a couple of popular temples on the way, one was called Araikasiamman. Apparently, if we pray to this Goddess and offer her some jaggery when something is lost/missing, you will find it immediately. The other popular temple was Pillayarpatti and I swear to God, this was the most handsome Ganesha - the elephant God, I had ever seen. A very old temple and needless to say very beautiful. Needless because the temples in Tamil Nadu are far beyond comparison to anything else in this world.

We skipped lunch, drove straight to Rameshwaram, and settled in a hotel there. Before this, we stooped to see the awesome view of plain blue from Pambam bridge. The ocean was all around. Infinite water is an amazing sight to watch. We woke up the next day , early, had bath in the 21 wells inside the temple and went for the darshan. We had the darshan of the Linga ( a form of Lord Shiva) made from a transparent stone known as Sphatika. This is where Lord Rama did the 'parihaara' (an act of apologizing for a past crime - did not know how else to describe this) for killing Ravana, who was a staunch devotee of Shiva. This is something that amazes me. The universal protector ( Lord Vishnu ) bows to the Universal Destroyer ( Lord Shiva ). I have never seen this happen the other way round. The only justification seems to be Lord Rama , was after all human. Complicated hindu mythology !

We set course along the coast to Thiruchandur , another temple on the beach. The road from Ramanathapuram to Tuticorin was bad. Had darshan of Lord Subramanya and had fun in the beach. This beach was clean and great fun to play in.

We drove further south to Kanyakumari, stayed there for the night. Woke up for sunrise the next day, saw one of the most beautiful sights in this world, went back to the hotel and freshened up. We visited the temple of Goddess Kanyakumari and started travelling back up north.

Next stop , Sucheendram. Amazing temple. Huge Hanuman ( Monkey God ), Navagraha ( Nine planets ) on the ceiling and Shiva and Vishnu as a single God were the attractions. 

Further north west to Kutralam water falls was a disappointment. Not much water in the falls. 

Back North east towards Madurai. We visited Srivelliputtur , the gopuram of which is the symbol of Tamil nadu state. Huge and lovely temple.

Next stop Madurai. Murugan Idly shop. Awesome food for the night. We went to sleep and had darshan of Madurai Meenakshi (Goddess whose eyes are shaped like a fish). This temple needs no description. I have no words to say anything about how marvellous this temple was.

Madurai to Karur and thats were I broke off from my relatives. Had to be at work. Synced up with Mohan, (yes the same guy I visited in my Karur trip) and got back to Bangalore by bus.

Huh !! That was tiring. I skipped so much detail and yet so tiring. Will append the photos soon.

Unitl then...