Our wanderings and perceptions

T h e new morning in Karaikudi was filled with Manjuvirattu excitement. 'Thanthi TV' OP van ou tside our hotel added to it. Ha d a quick breakfas t at Jaintika and left immediately to Siravayal village , 2 k ms from Karaikudi. The narrow r oad from the highway leading t owards the Jalli kattu ground was filled with crowds marching , 2-wheelers wit h 3 heads and 4-wheelers with the bulls. Its a mega event. The bulls and fighters had to register before-hand to participate. Bull just arrived The bulls were brought to mini tempo vehicles . On reaching the ground the bulls tied to the tempo are let free and brought to ground. There they are t ied to trees or po sts before being let out for Manju virattu. Taken inside the circle Manju virattu registration inv ol ves the process of registering , checking bull's health . Some families are bri ging in the ir bulls much later in the day missing the registration. S o they let the bulls loose in the outer pace of th

A s we covered Namakkal and Kolli in a day, decided to move out of this town the next day and travel to a region in TN which we haven't been to - Chetti nad. Drove via Trichy and reached K araikudi in 3.5 hours. Had to roam a round to find a good accommodation. While chettiyar house type hotels were highly pr iced, t he lower pr iced ones were poorly maintained. Finally zeroed in on Abhirami paradise for Rs.2000 per night. After checking in, the rec eption organized a pricey guide for us who could not drive. Selvakumar was our guide for Chettinad. He fi rst took us to a local rest aurant for lunch, w here only variety rice was available. Two scoops of rice is place d on the bana na leaf place d before us for Rs. 40 to Rs.50 each. We asked him to take us around chettinad heritage sites . Our first site af ter lunch was Th irumayya m fort, not the best place just after lunch. We had to again g o back to high way to Trichy to visit the fort. A tanker i s place d at t