This summer I spent 40 days exploring the southern state of Tamil Nadu
and it has left me stunned – positively and not so positively. Although, I
could have chosen a different time to be there and not when the incinerating
might of the sun was leaving me with blisters and itchy skin besides leaving me
drenched in my own sweat on certain nights!
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| The joys of slow travel | Valparai, (May 2016) |
I have few scant memories from childhood of having travelled to the
state. Perhaps that was the reason behind it assuming a spot in the list of
places travelled to when I began charting my own routes and therefore, left
mostly ignored. But that was only until the summer of 2016 when the impending
return finally came through.
It, of course, began in and with Madurai…
Manamadurai to be precise,
where I along with a friend spent 4 weeks volunteering our time with a local
NGO. You can read all about that experience and my takeaways in
an earlier post.
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| With the students at Manitham | Manamadurai (April 2016) |
I would like to iterate that volunteering aids in ensuring that you have
a more intimate relationship with the places you go to. It deepens what travel can
offer by way of broadening our perspectives about the world we live in. It has
been my own personal observation that as a people we are becoming a little too
myopic for our own good. What I mean is that we imagine what we know to be the
universal truth and take it one step further in applying it to everything
around us. The fallacy of generalizations. As it turns out, there is no harm in letting
go of our biases and prejudices – because even if we claim to have none (and I
am one of those), experiences such as these help in un-numbing us! And some
times that is all that is required.
While at Manamadurai,
Madurai
at a mere 50 kilometres away was visited too. Known as the ‘Athens of the East’
(at least by the government of Tamil Nadu), it is renowned for the Meenakshi
Temple. Consecrated to an incarnation of Lord Shiva, the temple is an expansive
complex bedecked with life-size statues, massive columns and long hallways. The
temple has four distinct entrances marked by four rajagopurams corresponding to
the four directions each adorned with images of gods and goddesses. It leaves
you awestruck, even if you like me understand very little about architecture. While
the temple is mostly open to all, certain sections aren’t - for non-Hindus and
foreigners. And with the exception of the mobile phone and wallet/purse, other
valuables and belongings are required to be left at the entrance.
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| Meenakshi Temple | Madurai (April 2016) |
1.5 kilometres away from the Temple is the Thirumalai Nayak Palace. An
impressive 17
th century structure, from what remains of it over the
centuries given that part of it was destroyed by the grandson of the first
ruler himself, it leaves you with an uncomfortable silence – especially since
there is very little to glean from or even walk around it. There is a light and
sound show that happens in the evenings though. The huge columns at a height of 20 metres and
width of 4 metres do attest to the genius minds of an era bygone and give the
structure a sense of grandeur.
Tip: When in Madurai, do not miss the opportunity to relish on
parothas (which are unlike any you would find in any part of Tamil Nadu, let
alone the country) and chug a tumbler of Jigarthanda.
Dhanushkodi (or what I call 'The Boat Graveyard’), though visited about a year ago, was hard to skip
especially since it was under 200 kilometres away from Manamadurai. There are
regular buses and trains plying to another temple town of Rameswaram – from
where Dhanushkodi is accessible by state-run transport buses. Unlike last year
though, my return from Rameswaram happened a little before sunset and the
splendour of chugging along the Pambam Brigde – India’s first sea bridge – was
thoroughly savoured.
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| Dhanushkodi | May 2016 |
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| On the Pamban Bridge | Pamban (May 2016) |
The island town that was wiped off the face of the earth after a
cyclone struck it in the early 1960s, retains an allure – albeit a haunting one
– of its own. The difference between my visit last year and this one was that
much has happened on the infrastructural side of things – in that, the road to
Dhanushkodi is nearing completion. One still has to board into a pre-paid Tempo
Traveller where the driver doubles as a guide. You can read about my experience
from last year
here.
And I have a feeling that as much as the completion of that road is a
requirement in some sense, it is going to dramatically change the allure of
Dhanushkodi that brought me back a second time.
On completing our volunteering stint in Manamadurai, we made our way
to
Thanjavur or Tanjore – known as
the rice bowl of India and home to one of the largest temples – the
Brihadeeshwara Temple.
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| Brihadeeshwara Temple | Thanjavur (May 2016) |
The temple – also a UNESCO World Heritage Site -
completed 1000 years in 2010. It left me standing agape as I attempted to
fathom how something this magnificent was designed and executed at such a
colossal scale so many centuries ago. Non-mechanised and purely based on the
human intellect in its rawest form, walking around the temple was a gentle
reminder of just what we've been able to accomplish. Keep an eye to catch
inscriptions on the wall (akin to the ones at the Qutub Minar in Delhi) as well
as the intricate carvings and etchings along every structure within the temple
complex.
The Thanjavur Maratha Palace Complex, on the other hand, that belonged
to the Bhonsle family who ruled Thanjavur from 1674 to 1855 is all sorts of
things all at once - it's exquisite in some places just as it is random and unkempt
at others! There is an AV that is screened as a part of 7 sites your ticket
permits you an entry to that I would recommend just so to make better sense of
a history that is indeed very rich.
And if you are interested do drop by the crafts village that is
slightly on the outside of the main town of Thanjavur. We were most delighted
when an artisan walked us through the process of how Thanjavur paintings get
made as well as explained the makings behind brass statues.
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| At the craft village | Thanjavur (May 2016) |
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| At the craft village | Thanjavur (May 2016) |
To make a Thanjavur
painting, the outline to the image is first drawn by pencil. The gold is
embossed by applying glue to the glittering foil and putting pressure on select
sections within the drawing. The remaining spaces are then coloured. Very
interestingly, the colours used are all natural i.e. prepared from flowers and
leaves. The paintings are also accompanied with bead-work or even semi-precious
stones. Looking at the finished pieces, it was hard to tell that it was nothing
but natural colour and golden foil. This surely is a testament to the skill of
the artisans.
Three days and an overnight train later, we were in
Pondicherry. There is something to be
said about first impressions when visiting a place. That morning very groggy
from sleep as we walked from the railway station to Le Café in White Town, the
air was a steady mix of calm and vibrant even as the sun was yet to make an
appearance. I had been longing for the sea and starting from that moment for
the next six days I felt at home. You can read about my experience of cycling
through Pondicherry in
this post.
Having arrived and departed from Thanjavur at midnight around a week
ago, my friend and I were rather comfortable arriving in Salem at 10 PM. We had
arranged for a pick-up through the hotel we were staying at in
Yercaud. But 30 minutes into that
journey, our vehicle was stopped at the check-post. We had to submit proof of
identity and had cops questioning us on whether our parents knew where we were!
This was a first for me in all this time of travel and solo travel. And as much
as I can try and understand perhaps the need to be cautious and concerned
around safety of women, there is something awkward and even a tad bit annoying
about being interrogated in that manner. It seemed to connote that ‘you have no
business travelling so late especially since you are accompanied by a man!’
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| The Shevaroys | Yercaud (May 2016) |
But 20 hairpin bends up and a good night’s sleep later, Yercaud -
located at an altitude of 4970 feet above sea level - seemed like just the
thing the doctor had prescribed. My skin allergies that had been acting up
since I got to Madurai - thanks to the blistering heat - were finally relieved
we were at a hill station. The onset of the monsoons added just the kind of
touch to the weather that I couldn’t be anymore grateful for. The local sights
are akin - in nomenclature - to those one comes across at most hill stations –
think <insert name> Point and <insert name> Seat. But the views of
the valleys and the surrounding hill tops are ravishing. Do stop by at the
Botanical Garden – it was my first at seeing an insectivores plant years after
they filled my imagination from reading about them in my science text books
from school. P.S.: The insectivores
plant was dead, btw!
Twenty hairpin bends down and forty hairpin bends up with four
state-run buses changed en-route, we were at
Valparai. Lower in altitude at 3500 feet, everywhere you cast your
eyes in Valparai it is only tea gardens owned by private folk such as the Tatas
– that have come at the cost of slashing down the jungles of the Annamalai in
the Western Ghats. But the greens compensate somehow – or at least that is what
I, an urbanite from the concrete jungle tells herself.
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| There is no such thing as too much tea | Valparai (May 2016) |
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| Lion Tail Macaque | Valparai (May 2016) |
Valparai is rich in wildlife. Our journey at the foothills – prior to
commencing on that 40 hairpin bend journey – began with a sighting of elephants
not too far away from the main road. The next day after being driven around to
some of the local sights while we were walking through the jungles, we spotted
the Lion Tail Macaque family ripping jackfruits with their bare hands for
brunch. I also had a blink and miss sighting of the Indian Giant Squirrel too.
No luck with the hornbills though. And that thing about shinrin-yoku is true. I
haven’t felt as purged of my weariness as I did in those two days at Valparai.
In my head the phrase ‘enchanted forest’ now has a Google pin I can associate
with to.
Last year, I made
my third visit to
Kanyakumari. And this year while being very much in the vicinity, I
was sure I didn’t particularly want to ‘drop in’ yet again. But while in
Trivandrum, my friend’s mother drove us to places within the district of
Kanyakumari and I was left stumped. Stumped because as it turns out there is
always something hidden and unexplored to a place in spite of the number of
times you’ve been there before! First up was the
Thirparappu Falls is where the
Kodyar River cascades down from a height of 50 feet while burgeoning at its
seams at 300 feet to create something so magnificent that it dominates the
landscape with that fervour for close to seven months a year. The
Mathur
Hanging Bridge (Aqueduct) is the longest and the highest of its kind in all of
south-east Asia and was constructed in 1966 as a drought relief measure with
the purpose of carrying water for irrigation from an elevated level of one hill
to another. Standing atop I saw nothing but the tree tops in that lush green
landscape. And as if on cue then, it started to pour.
Padmanabhapuram Palace
constructed around 1601 AD, is Asia’s largest wooden palace. However, in 1795
the capital of Travancore was shifted from here to Thiruvananthapuram, and the
place lost its former glory. The palace complex continues to be one of the best
examples of traditional Kerala architecture. #FunFact: The Palace though
surrounded entirely by the State of Tamil Nadu is still part of Kerala and the
land and Palace belongs to the Government of Kerala.
To think that for the past month or so I couldn’t get myself to write
anything and here I am 2000+ words later nodding in agreement with Ibn Battuta
who said: “Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a
storyteller.”
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