namma mejura

That really is an apt description of Madurai roads. Even if there are platforms run on either side of the roads as in four Maasi streets and in Nethaji Road, there would still be a gap between the road and platform, where dirt (hard to define it as soil or sand) gets heaped up and trying to spread towards middle of the road.

Recently I’ve read an interesting view of Chennai – Madurai – Periyar – Kochi by an university librarian who works on a ship for ‘semester at sea’ program. She have pretty interesting things to say about Madurai.

Driving through Madurai, it reminded me also very much of the little town outside of Madrid where my Spanish family had their vacation home. …..

But something about how the roads edged off into dirt on either side and the presence of that dirt in the air as it was kicked up by all the people out doing early morning daily shopping (before it gets too hot), and the congregating and chatting and doing business and laughing, the noise, the mopeds, it struck me all as very familiar…

Read the full article at sea ville. (You can also get a good laugh to find an overenthusiastic Keralite professor boasting about Kerala leading other states in IT services!!!)

Amusing to see a comparison with a Spanish town. But it reminds me of the point. Atleast within the main parts of the city, the dirt space between the platform and road can be eliminated. This along with a better rainwater draining (harvesting) system can make Madurai look classy.

Madurai’s unique Chithrai Festival has officially started. The celestial marriage preparations at Meenakshi temple is in full swing. The 45-day Chithrai Exhibition is also launched on time. The path for ‘Azhagar’ entering Vaigai river is being spruced up. City Police commissioner told media that women police constables will roam in disguise to catch eve-teasers! Expect to see remakes of Vadivelu comedy scenes on the streets!!

This time, a circus has also pitched in to add jazz to the festival time. Perhaps this is the first time a circus will conduct show on the northern side of Vaigai. It’s been setup at Wakf Board college grounds. The usual venue ‘UC Hr Sec school grounds at Tamilnadu theological seminary campus‘ is no longer an attractive option. It is now hidden by the shopping complex built by theological seminary along the road.

The Madurai Kamraj University has been accorded a status called ‘University with potential for excellence’ by UGC (University Grants Commission).

More than a decade ago, their MicroBiology department achieved international acclaim. Now the university as whole got this status. University authorities naturally feel proud and put this tag prominently on all their communications. They even went on to put them on the sides of their buses.

As a result, many mistook that ‘tag’ as a slogan incorporated by the University. May be it is a prestigious tag, but if you take the sentence at face value, it implies that ‘this university got potential, BUT it has NOT achieved excellence yet’. Not a good comment for a 40 year old institution. 40 years is more than a career life-time for men. If that is not sufficient, how long it will take to achieve ‘excellence’?

A decade back, whenever I met a Madurai lad working in bigger cities, our chat invariably touches the topic ‘Roadside idli shops’. Without exception, all Madurai lads caught up in the job situation in metros, misses them and grow very fond while talking about them.

If you don’t know these shops:

Roadside idli (or, was it idly ?!) shops are an ubiquitous fixation in Madurai. They start business as the sun goes down and do business till 11 pm or even 12pm in some places. The fare is quite standard on all those shops. Idlies (ofcourse!), dosa, uthappam.

They also stack raw eggs and can deliver omelette, half-boiled eggs or even pour an omelette on top of a dosa while cooking (muttai dosai !).

They arrive mostly on a tri-cycle. Set up the stove, a few tables and chairs. The prices were cheap, but the taste were not. Those out-of-town lads rue this particular point. After all, such roadside shops now appear on metros as well, but you can’t guarantee the taste or cost.

They don’t have names boards or even clear boundaries. But they are an important part of Madurai’s lifestyle. They lost some of their importance now (too much traffic these days). It struck me that having no mention of these shops in this blog is not right. So here it goes.

I distinctly remember our day out to Madurai airport as a school kid in 70s. As a field trip from the school, we went there on a chartered bus. We were eager to see the airport (nee, aerodrome) & the dakota plane in close quarters.

As we approach the airport, we saw a low single storey building with a small diamond shaped glass house at it’s top center. The whole place looked barren and lots of whithering leaves littered all around. Once our initial interest waned out, we just yawned and shuffled around for an hour to see a lonely dakota arrives and takes off. Except for the brief time of lazy activity, it looked like a forelorn building.

Well, things haven’t changed much since then. Apart from lengthening the runway etc. The building looks the same. There is a car parking lot and additional counters for the private carriers. But nothing much to show the difference of 30 years.

And it looks almost the same from the sky. Have a look at the Google Map at www.wikimapia.org .

Happy to note that namma mejura is considered a ‘cool’ site among ‘namma’ & ‘my’ sites. Reflections a blog at blogspot had this to say.

And number of blogs and web site with ‘namma’ and ‘my’ prefixes are on the increase….
…The blogs range from Mysore to Pune to Madurai. The one on Madurai is really cool

Eventhough the post was a year old, I stumbled on it only recently (after registering this blog at Technorati). Encourages me to post at namma.mejura more frequently. Thankyou Reflections!