Before that, I wanted to share the rare photos of Madurai appearing in a forum. It’s a treat to see serene streets around Meenakshi Amman Temple & Yaanai Malai standing alone.

It’s not known about the origin of these photos, but a great find. Do have a look at http://allaboutmadurai.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25 and also on the second page at http://allaboutmadurai.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=25&start=10

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First Twitter Camp of Madurai underway

The camp was scheduled to be inaugurated by Ms.Chinmayi, the well known singer of Kollywood. But we readily discounted that as travel costs wouldn’t justify such a visit.

As expected, the organizers announced at the meet that Ms.Chinmayi is indisposed & would instead do an e-inauguration. The e-inauguration is an euphemism as the presenter searched files & clicked a video (shot apparently couple of days earlier) on screen.

Nevertheless it shows the reach DCI had in Kollywood circles and I wouldn’t blame them for using this way to bring media’s attention to the camp. Thanks to big names, it was a prominent news in ‘The Hindu’ Madurai edition. They also brought a local (Vaigai) TV channel’s boss to the event, which ensured good coverage in local new channel.

Event was worthwhile in the morning (I couldn’t spend the whole day there). It’s DCI show all the way. Certainly not their fault, as there isn’t any other sponsor and the event was held in their office. Really a good effort by C.R.Venkatesh for bringing this event to Madurai.

The agenda mentioned ‘Anand nataraj’ of Cogzidel would speak. But ironically he tweeted that he is sleeping in the car at Yelagiri hills(?!) by 9.30am

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Yaanaimalai (Elephant hill) at the outskirts of Madurai has a unique shape & a treasure trove for archaeologists. It has jain caves at the top, numerous inscriptions all around the hills and also two carved temples at the bottom.

Lakshmi Narasimha temple is carved deep into the hill and the deity (carved in the hill) stands near the centre of the hillock at ground level.

It’s a wonder that some people thought it fit to propose cutting the hill, carve a sculpture in the middle & scoop the remaining rocks for granite exports. The effort was named as beautifying the place & to give Madurai a tourist place!

Well, Yaanai malai already earned it’s own merit over thousands of years (it’s even mentioned in very old tamil scripts) to become a tourist spot. And being a unique shape, it already have a striking pose, looking majestically at the approaching urbanization.

Rock Temple, originally uploaded by daynee2003.

Thankfully, protests were loud & that proposal was officially struck down last week by Government of Tamilnadu. Now it only needs beautification around the hillock & promoting it properly.

The tail end of the hillock still retains a lot of greenery and a nice picnic spot, untouched by urbanization.

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Houses in these areas used to have ample space all around & invariably sport couple of coconut trees besides many flowering plants. Now many new apartments come up in just a single or 2 plots of old houses.

As a result, they have only about 3 feet space between the compound wall & the building. The ground floor in these buildings have space only for car parking slots, a lift & a ubiquitous power generator.

Advertisements by the builders usually show a trendy building standing tall amidst lush greenery. But a vast majority of them have no scope of greenery. The entire ground is covered end-to-end with cement leaving any greenery only to potted plants in some of the balconies.

It’s literally a concrete jungle.

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Well, it’s actually a Tamil phrase with no Tamil words!!  Sounds even more bizzare isn’t it?   It actually refers to giving back an insult (or retort) to a high sounding person.  Well used in Madurai & most parts of Tamilnadu.

Found a reference on ‘nose cut‘ in an unofficial ‘Dictionary of Indian English‘ http://snipurl.com/nosecut [www_vsubhash_com].

So how come such a unique phrase came into use?   It was attributed to the ‘Mysore – Madurai war‘ at the fag end of ‘Thirumalai Naick‘ period, which was finally won by Madurai with vital support from Sethu Nadu (Ramanathapuram).

In this war, the Mysore King ordered to cut the noses of enemies as they advance.  And the Madurai army retaliated in the same way!!   But it certainly was not funny as it sounds.  Read about the full history of the war here http://snipurl.com/nosewar [www_visvacomplex_com] .  It also has an interesting map of south India during 17th Century. (The article was written by Dr.S.Jayabarathi, a renowned scholar on Archeology & Tamil Literature)

The article had interesting points such as Mysore rulers ‘exhort southern rulers by holding back Kaveri waters‘ in 14th – 17th century period.  So River Cauvery’s part in politics have a long history.

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A Temple for sale? Unbelievable and blasphemous, you may think. But it is a harsh reality too.

The news at The Hindu.com website

About 60 kms from Madurai, on the Madurai – Tenkasi highway lies a village named M.Subbulapuram. A catchy board points to a side road mentioning ‘Nera Koil’ (Time Temple!). Since the name is unique, it gets the attention, most people travelling on the highway would have noticed it. Heard that it is a new temple which helps in achieving materialistic things.

The news report confirms this…

The temple is not only for those who suffer due to bad times, but also cures health problems such as swelling, headache, back ache, heart problem, knee pain, fits and bone disorder.

The news at The Hindu.com website

The reason for this offer?

…wants to hand down to the responsibility to a devoted and a rich person so that he can repay the loans he has incurred in constructing the temple.

“I am not able to serve like before given my advancing age. I am looking for somebody who can serve the temple and the people. This is my only concern now,” he says.

Hmmmm… what to say. When spiritual becomes business, you can even buy an ongoing venture.

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Legend has it that, King Thirumalai Naicker is very religious and showed reverence to Aandaal Temple at Srivilliputhur. He is known to have his lunch only after the “Uchi Kaala Poojai” (pooja at noon) performed at Aandaal Temple at Srivilliputhur, about 75Kms from Madurai.

It is interesting to know how the news travelled 75 Kms everyday in time to the king in those days. When the pooja is performed, the big bronze bell at the temple will toll. It can be heard for about 5Kms. So the king built mandapams all the way from Madurai to Srivilliputhur with less than 5Km intervals. When the bell is heard at the first mandapam, the person-in-charge there will toll a similar bell installed at the mandapam, which can be heard at the second mandapam, which in turn strike their own bell. The bell sound is thus carried over all the way to Madurai within a few minutes.

Though there were no signs of a pedestal for a bell in this mandapam, I inclined to believe the story. It is said that he built them bigger so the public who usually travel on foot can take rest in these mandapams.

The mandapam is now unsafe to venture in. But the beauty of the art works were too valuable to loose. It lies just on the edge of the highway near Srivilliputhur, but somehow was left unmaintained. History & architecture casually lying by the road side.

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South Entrance, originally uploaded by mdsenthil.

This is an update to the post on Beautification of Chitrai Streets around Meenakshi Amman Temple earlier.

Madurai bench of Madras High Court made an interim order today, allowing vehicle access up to the entrance of Chithrai Streets (but not on Chitrai Streets) to allow cars to drop passengers (maximum 15 minutes parking time!). Heavy vehicles are still off-limits for these access roads.

This is a slight improvement for elders visiting the temple, but bound to create traffic snarls in these narrow Amman Sannathi, West Tower and North Tower streets.

Read more about it here http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/29/stories/2009012958610300.htm

Secured parking for residents & shop owners of Chitrai Streets is still a question mark.

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The scene looks very much um… un-Madurai! But, it’s the same Chitrai Streets around Meenakshi Amman Temple. Impressive development indeed. Now vehicles were not allowed in Chitrai Streets and it enhances to the smooth look besides the safety factor.

If you look closely, you can still see the Madurai-ness – sand accumulating along the edges of neatly tiled road as well on the granite footpath. The granite footpath is smooth, but always have noticable spread of sand grains. Maintenance is usually our weak point.

The people living in Chitrai street as well as the shop owners were protesting on block vehicle movement in Chitrai Streets. Authorities should consider priority/reserved parking spaces for them in parallel streets. It will be an inconvenience for them, but should not be a harassment.

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There used to be a sound and light show at Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal. But it was degraded (a few non-working lights, noise in speakers etc.) and gradually went out of operation. Efforts are on to revive it again.

Hope it doesn’t turn out as dumb as the earlier one. I’ve hosted an international traveller for a show of previous version (4 years back) and he was thoroughly disappointed.

The remaining one-fourth of Thirumalai Nayakkar’s Palace itself is a magnificent reminder of previous era. It is worth visiting there in the day time. It has also become a preferred cinema shooting location for song sequences.

But if you plan for an evening of Sound & Light show at Mahal, don’t set your hopes high.

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