Our wanderings and perceptions

During the May 1st 2025 we took a long weekend and drove off to Mannargudi.  Started around 5:30 am from Chennai. Had a short breakfast at Manoj Bhavan in Maduranthakam and reached Mannargudi by 1 PM. Being the long weekend, the traffic was quiet heavy all the way till Melmaruvathur. At Panrutti we stopped to buy cashews. Lots of jackfruits loaded long the roads in Panrutti along with Cashew fruits. We also bought some baby cucumbers, it was so fresh one can hear the crispy sound from it while eating. The travel once you reach the delta region will always be intertwined with rivers running along. Though the flow was low owing to the summer, its a pretty site to come across water bodies at regular intervals during long travels. Relying on Google maps, we had to switch between NH and SH to reach out destination. Towards Kumbakonam the sun gave some relief by going inside the clouds, otherwise the weather forced us to have the ac on in the car. We had our accommodation ...

Very near to Porur, off the Kundrathur main road, is the Thirunageswaram temple. The main deity is Lord Nageswarar. Being a Saturday we had to wait more than an hour in queue to get the darshan of the Lord. The interesting thing here is there is no special entrance. All of them stand in the queue to worship. The Goddess is  Kamakshi Amman. This is one of the Navagraha temple. This temple has a pond just opposite to it. Nice temple to visit whenever possible..

Jaipur is full of forts and palaces depicting Monarchy. The kings here had friendly relation with Mughal empire so their assets have stayed in tact and they had continued to live their life with any trouble. Their architecture is hugely influenced by Mughals. The dooms of the mahals and the sheesh mahals are obvious proofs. Also during the British reign the Kings here maintained cordial relationships and hence there had been no harm done to their structures and also we don't see any Anglian buildings in this city unlike other cities in India. The bazaar shops are leased and the Royals receive the benefits. The Royal family still owns major properties in the city like the mahals and current Royal who is 27 yrs old still enjoys the privileges. He stays in London and often visits Jaipur. Anyone can have a visit/luncheon with the Royal for Rs.3000 fare. We wanted to do a North India trip for a very long time and got to reminisce it through this Jaipur trip. But it did not give the same...

Our second day in Jaipur started at 8 AM after our breakfast at the hotel. Today the buffet consisted of - bread, cornflakes, aloo paratha, subji, poha and idly with chutney and sambhar. Have to give it to them for making chutney purely with coconut. Our driver took us to a near by Ganesh temple before starting our journey as we wanted to go to a local temple. A small temple this one was, outside devotees were doing abhishegam to the Siva lingam. The Ganesh idol was well decorated, we had a good darshan and came out to start our journey to Pushkar. Pushkar is some 150 kms from Jaipur. We had to go through the NH48 route, all along this route were marble factories. We took one tea break and kept driving towards Pushkar. Some areas along the route were dry and few were still green and we could feel the signs of summer setting in. As the time passed by we felt the strong heat through the back window of the cab. Had to decrease the ac temperature to stay cool. The humidity level here is le...