From Travel Diary: Tamil Nadu

TN = Tamil Nadu not Tennessee US; Travel Date: February 2011, delay in blogging due to laziness

I purposely opted for train journey despite my friends telling me to go via flight. But the tour was meant to get a glimpse of Southern India.

The journey rushing from North TN to South TN. The first few days were blissful in the shelter of Ramanashram at Thiruvannamalai and Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry. I took a small journey to Mother's creativity at Auroville, indeed to be called a Tapovan. But today all I could remember is the taste of the French cake at a restaurant on the Pondi beach. Please forgive me I am not a foodie but now I know why someone quoted the best way to a man's (read it as person's) heart is through his stomach.

Back to Chennai with Senthil and Hemlata we went for a whirlwind journey across the city -  Marina beach, Mylapore R K Mission, Vivekananda House, Shiva temples and shopping south silk at T-Nagar. V-House was the most interesting visit, a cold storage known as Ice House converted to the residence of Swami Vivekananda, later on becoming a vocational school for downtrodden and then re-vamping it to a memorial in the honor of V.

Then we raced to southern part of TN, surfing through the stunning temple architecture of Madurai, the gigantic waves of Kanyakumari and glorious Tanjavur palatial art. Facing the ocean at Kanyakumari I felt the first time the hugeness and power in a ocean. I have seen the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea many times, but the Indian Ocean was a different class altogether, it was clearly indicating it is the king of other water-bodies. Tanjavur or Tanjore was a revelation, it really deserves the fame it has, the red stone architecture is simply a marvel. The huge Nandi cow had a mythological bearing that it grows every day. The temples of Murugan were the most exciting as Karthikeya the warlord has always been my hero.

The journey would not have been complete without my visit to Tambaram for Naadi astrology. They succeeded in finding my aulayi or the ancient papyrus written for me. I do not know how authentic it was but it instigated so much interest for Naadi in me that I maanged to find out another Naadi astrologer back in my home town as well and visited him there.

TN was a tour mixed with spirituality, hectic travel to places with natural beauties and marvels of architecture, history and astrology. Above all was my dear friend Senthil and his sister Hemlata. It was a sheer pleasure indeed.