Though it’s not common, Horse carriages are still plying in Madurai. A nice way to entertain the kids and re-live the rustic charm of older days when you visit Madurai.
When it comes to movies, Madurai used to have a special place. Actors usually get a large fan base here. It was said that every actor worth his name in tamil filmdom will have a fan club in Madurai!
With such a dubious distinction, film going in Madurai used to be a rough experience. Ticket booths used to be heavily barricaded & private guards stand around ticket booth to ward off storming youths. These youths were storming ticket booths not to capture it, but only to buy tickets!!
Well, those days are gone! Theatres now wear a desolate look, except for a few inaugural shows of established stars. Even acclaimed films do not draw a full house after first week. So theatre owners have the option of either converting the vital land for better usage .. or .. pamper the visitors with better experience.
Second rung theatres like Jeyaraj (near LadyDoak College) & Pandian (near Vilangudi) were converted into an Apartment-cum-Shopping complex.
Some other theatres were opting to pamper the visitors. Ganesh & Sundaram (kk nagar) theatres were taken over by Reliance’s Big cinemas, and these were now on par with other Big cinema theatres all over the country. The famed Regal theatre was revamped & now draw crowds mainly due to the facilities there.
An individual theatre on the outskirts – the Mani Impala (near Tirunagar) is now converted into a multiplex of 3 theatres and said to be on par with Big cinema group or Satyam multiplex.
Of the previous multiple theatres (not multiplexes), the Priya theatre complex seem to have the potential of becoming a multiplex, but it shows no sign of improvement.
Madurai Police Commissioner springs a surprise for Independence day. He announced two days earlier that two-wheeler riders must wear helmets and the rule will be strictly enforced (again) from Independence day.
The immediate provocation seems to be that recent road-accident deaths were mostly two-wheelers riders with head injuries. Traffic police have started imposing fines for riders without helmets at various points. But riders are not yet returning to helmet usage in large numbers. Earlier it will be 1 in 100, now it seems to be about 10 riders out of 100 use helmets.
Police have also took up a persuasive way from Independence day. They are now visiting schools to ask kids to remind their parents, elder brothers & sisters to wear helmets while riding two-wheelers. After all marketers are targeting kids to persuade their parents into buying consumer durables.
With the rains, the city roads were full of sand dust, which alone could force people to wear full mask helmets. With improved roads, and higher capacity bikes, the average speeds have actually increased in arterial roads (except in peak hours). But Maduraiites are still very defiant in using helmets, why?
While walking on bye-pass road, a Maruti Omni pulled ahead of me. A young man on back seat called out a name – ‘Annamalai, Annamalai!’. At this, a dirty man in rags (who lingers on the fringe of road and seem to have lost in a world of his own) came over to the car, and collected a pack of food & water.
Now, if this sound familiar, you might know or heard about Akshaya Trust of Madurai. Ever since the life of a 5-star hotel cook who’s visit to home town (Madurai) evoked an absolute turnaround on his career, many mentally unstable roadside souls were fed daily. Mr. Krishnan is taking care & feeding them daily for the past 6-7 years without fail.
The Maruti Omni is one belonged to Akshaya Trust donated by well-wishers. Curious about name calling, I approached the car and asked about it. The young man who helps Krishnan in this routine said ‘we named him!’.
Krishnan & his Akshaya Trust got coverage in Media. Yet not many seem to know. You can read a media report here. And also at their own website www.akshayatrust.org
A short news feature available at YouTube on Akshaya Trust
And a more detailed coverage by this blogger Marcie who ran a marathon to raise funds for Akshaya Trust.
With the rains from a storm near chennai, the climate is cool here. Madurai is spared from the deluge but all tanks were filled to the brim. The Kirudhumal River is desilted at last minute to drain excess water from Madakulam tank. I think ‘Kirudhumal River’ might qualify for ‘World’s Narrowest River’.
We expect to eat Madurai mann for the next 3-4 days as the roads dry up.
Cinema halls in Madurai were slowly turning over to online booking for some of their premium tickets. Since the Ganesh theatre (at Kuruvikaran Salai) was taken over by Adlabs, the tickets of Adlabs Ganesh are available through their site – just as other Adlab theatres all over the country.
For other theatres like Priya Complex, Ambika – Mookambika and a few others, there is limata.com. The site doesn’t look confident inspiring. But nevertheless they do offer a mobile number as an alternative to book & get home delivery. Please comment below if you already booked through these sites. It would help others in making their decision.
Tamil historians used to boast that Ancient Madurai under Pandyan kings had wide roads. They truly built a planned city with outer walls etc. But the roads are not that much wide. It pales in comparison to historic roads & roundanas in Mysore (ofcourse Mysore roads seems to be of recent origin while Madurai roads may be thousands of years old, not a real comparison there).
Now to an interesting question. Which one will be widest & most happening road in Madurai?
The wider roads in Madurai are at best four-laners, usually two lanes with a median at the centre. So don’t be disappointed.
The Alagarkovil Road at Goripalayam used to be an important & wide-looking stretch in 80s, but the 80 feet road from KK nagar to Kuruvikaaran Saalai was more wider & comfortable.
It showed signs of developing into a bustling shopping district, but it’s parallel road on Anna Nagar took over.
The Anna nagar main road doesn’t have much platform space, but is four-track. It now has the vibrance of a shopping area, but lack of parking space hinders it to realize its full potential.
All these roads were on the northern side of River Vaigai. On the south there used to be no wide roads to speak off. There is a small stretch between Teppakulam and Nirmala School which can look wide, but it isn’t a happening stretch.
Now, to boast a most happening road, the southern side takes over. The Bye-pass road, with service roads on either side, ample shoulders after wide canals & avenue trees made it a natural choice for shoppers. Sure enough, shops have flocked for this road and is fast becoming an elite shopping & happening place.
Naidu hall, World of Titan, Raymonds, Vimal, Megamart, Sony World, Panasonic Brand shop, Basics and local big shopping names such as Milan, Anandha & Anandha, Madura Shoes… bye-pass road surely overtook all other roads in the city.
The central part of the road needs to be widened. Work on this is moving on snail’s pace. Once the new NH 4-track north-south Golden Corridor bye-pass is completed (hoping for March 2008), much of the container lorry traffic will be reduced, leaving the current bye-pass road to develop into a full shopping area.
It might need to be renamed by then. Guess it will be named after Gandhi (MG Road, reminding bangaluru!) or Anna (we have many identical named areas as in chennai, but we dont have anna salai!).
So Madurai’s most happening & wide road is …. the Bye-pass road (sigh, strange name!)
I couldn’t resist posting this link. Even though the pictures were taken in Chennai, the situations were too similar to our city. I take it for granted to see whole families on a motorcycle in city roads. I have also carried kids like this.
This blog post was made in 2006 but very much contemporary. Have a look at wonderful 5-part series by Basia.
I under-estimated the power of the pull ‘Naidu hall’ (Naiha) have among women.
It is now a fashion for bigger shops to spread out to other cities in the region. Alukkas, Jos Alukkas & Bhima are the big name jewellery shops from Kerala, now firmly established in Madurai within the last 2 years. Chennai based mobile shop chain ‘Univercell’ & ‘mobile city’ opened 3 – 4 shops in Madurai.
So when Naidu hall opened their showroom at bye-pass road, it seemed they are following the trend. But the buzz it created among the women are tremendous. For the first three days, it seemed like a mega event, with a musical party thrown in at the evenings. Feedback from school, college going youngsters were that the shop is the hot topic among girls.
The bye-pass road is growing fast in it’s stature. It may soon need a better name.
