Our wanderings and perceptions

 Our insights into Trichy and our other two trips on TN's tier-2 cities From our recent trip to Thiruchirapalli we could not help but compare it with the previous place we visited - Madurai and Thanjavur.  Unlike Madurai and Thanjavur, Trichy has good road transport particularly the buses. The central bus terminus opened in Dec 2021 is modern with digital name board inside so that one can identify where exactly their destination bus will start from. The island - SriRangam made by the rivers Kaveri and Kollidam is well connected to Trichy center. Apart from the government buses, lot of private buses ply with good frequency. Sri Rangam houses many government offices, so every 15 minutes buses leave to and fro between Sri Rangam and Trichy. As we see the transportation is good, the infrastructure has to improve to accommodate. The roads are quiet narrow. We can see fly overs inside but traffic seems to be heavy round the clock. Madurai and Thanjavur were able to manage the t...

 Our wish to get the blessing of Lord Karaneeswarar was fulfilled at last this month. Numerous times we cross Saidapet and see the gopuram but but could go until now. On a Saturday morning taking we left home to Saidapet and had two places in mind to visit.  Karaneeswarar Temple This lies very near to the Saidapet subway and railway station. The street leading to the temple at the dead end. This street is quiet broad and gives a big parking lot. On entering the temple, to your right is Lord  Ganapathi. If you take the praharam further to the right, you can get to see Lord Murugar in his shrine. As in any Shiva temple, the 63 Nayanmaars are here. On the left of the rear side is the Navagraha shrine. After that you enter the inner sanctum where the Lord Karaneeswarar and very adjacent to him is his consort Goddess Swarnambika. We had a good darshan of both the Goddess and the Lord and sat there for sometime. Hotel Mari We reached this restaurant just few minutes from t...

 On our last and forth day day at Trichy we planned to get the darshan of Uchipillaiyar and start homeward journey as early as possible to reach Chennai before the Sunday evening traffic jam, Wanted to visit the temple and then get back for breakfast but the hotel staff suggested otherwise as the Uchipillaiyar temple visit will take around 1-1.5 hours. So had a quick breakfast at 7:30 AM and left in a auto for Rs. 70 to Rockford. We were taken directly to the entrance from were we can start climbing towards the temple. We had already visited Lord Manicka Vinayagar the previous while we came for shopping.  As we started climbing the stairs, was a bit scared whether we can make up to Lord Pillaiyar but his blessings were with us. Not all steps are of same size, shape or height. After climbing up 75% of the total steps we take left towards Thaayumanavar temple. If one takes the right here, we will head to the Pillaiyar temple right on top. Lord Shiva is called by Thaayumanavar he...

 Trichy's third day saw us visiting Sri Ranganathar's temple in the morning. We came back to the hotel and took our car to Kallanai - another bucket list for Trichy drop around. It took us around 30 mins to reach Kallanai driving for 17-18 kms. On reaching the spot - Grand Anaicut, we were asked to park and walk thought he bridge as only 2 wheelers are allowed to ply on it.  Kallanai is built during the early Chola empire and stands strong even today witnessing various eras in history. On a February month, as the raining season is off we get see some water in the river and the dam with a slow flow compared to the December month. We walked all the way on the bridge seems the water, sand, birds on a breezing late morning.  We could see the bust of Sir Arthur Cotton after walking through 2/3rds of the bridge. He was one from the British empire to check the dam. He was overwhelmed with the strength of the dam built centuries ago and informed his empire that further enhan...

  When we discussed about visiting Sri Rangam Ranganathar Temple, the hotel person suggested us to visit the temple in the early morning Viswaroopa darshan that is at 5 AM. Due to an exhaustive second day in Trichy we could only manage to wake up at 6 AM on the third day and hence decided to go to the temple after our breakfast. We took an auto for Rs.100 to reach the second gopuram from the outer most to leave our foot wear and then enter the temple. The first thing that encapsulates you is the 7 storey-ed colourful Rajagopuram. You can see Srilanka when you reach the top most story of this gopuram. Since Ranganathar came here through Vibishanan the Lord here is seen turned towards/giving darshan to Vibishanan in Srilanka.  Rajagopuram was built in the last century and opened in the later 1980s. There are darshan timings and devotees have to wait in long queues to see the Lord. Being a Saturday the temple was thronged by devotees waiting for the 9 AM darshan to open...

 On the second after reaching back to hotel from our evening temple visits we parked our car in the hotel, freshened up and walked to Thiruvanaikaval - Jambukeswarar Agilandeeswari temple. Within 5 mins walk from our hotel of stay we reached the temple gopuram. As the outer gopuram and its corridor are open to public - vehicles were trying to squeeze in through making it difficult to walk in through. After some struggle to reach next level gopuram to enter the temple. Its a huge temple. The walls around the temple are like that of a fort. As one of the 5 elements temple - this stands for water. The Lord Jambukeswarar sits on water in his sanctum. We are let, 5-6 persons at a time to get the darshan of the Lord in the inner sanctum. We had to take Rs.50 per head special entrance ticket as the free darshan queue was quiet lengthy owing to Friday.  His consort Goddess Agilandeeswari has a separate shrine next doors. We had come out of Lord Jambukeswarar premises to enter the Godd...

 The second day morning at Trichy saw us visiting temples. We continued the same in the evening too. The first temple to visit was Vayalur Murugar temple. With the help of google maps we navigates through narrow roads and fields to reach Vayalur or Kumaravayalur in Woraiyur. It took us around 40 mins, traversing through 14 kms. This is where Kirupanandha Variyar worshipped lord Murugar. We first get to workship Lord Shiva in this old temple followd by Lord Murugar. The Lord is called Subramanyaswami and gives us his darshan along with Goddess Deivanai and Goddess Valli. The deity is small and we get to worship very much close to the inner sanctum. Its a small temple and hence 15 mins we were out in the outer praharam of the temple. Here we were given sweet pongal, tamarind rice and sundal by a devotee. In the parking area a tourist driver offered to help us reach Vekkali Amman temple. The travel from Vayalur temple to Vekkali Amman temple was a tedious one as we drove thr...