Our wanderings and perceptions

 On our second day in Trichy we began the day with the complimentary buffet breakfast at the hotel. They served continental and south Indian food. The sambhar and vada were not up to the mark but all other items on the spread were good. Continental - bread, jam, butter, juice, kellogs, corn flakes. South Indian - Upma, idly, dosa, kesari, sambhar, vada, chutneys and North Indian - Paratha and fries. Viralimalai was our first place of visit today. This is some 40 kms away from our hotel. There seems to more ways to reach Varalimalai as we go through the Trichy by pass route. Google maps always shows a different way than the ones suggested by people on road here. This a small hill lock temple of lord Murugar. There is Viralimalai dance drama on this temple as in the form of Kuravanji dance. The temple is an old one dating back to the chola dynasty. We can see Arunagirinathar's poem's engraved on the temple walls. Murugar is known as Lord Shanmuganathar here, he is seen here alon...

 Very recently we came to know about the Anjaneyar temple built by actor Arjun is at Gerugambakkam. On a Sunday evening we drove towards this place. We need to detour from the Kundrathur main road to reach this temple and from then on we need to face a rough and patchy road. In just 5 minutes one can reach the temple. A small residential street leads to the temple. Very near it one could see few small stalls mushroomed up to sell pooja items. The vehicles have to be parked in the street near the temple gates. First is the corridor were few trees are seen.  On taking left is the entrance to the temple and you can see the Lord Anjaneyar much ahead. Here too are few trees uniformly spaced out. There is a coconut farm adjacent to this temple. There is a shelter above Lord Anjaneyar, but for that it is a open air temple. Facing Lord Anjaneyar and to the left and right corner are two shrines - one for Lord Ganesh and the other for Lord Anjaneyar's - Lord Rama, Lord Lakshmana and God...

 Our Thiruchirapalli trip started on a Thursday morning. We began our journey by car at 6 AM. Our breakfast stop over was at Maduranthagam at around 8 AM. Being a week day it was difficult to cross the city in the morning hours. But for that the road was quiet free. We were able to reach our destination at 10:30 AM. We had booked in our accommodation at Hotel Grand Arcadia for 3 days. As its booked online the check-in was slated at 12 only as 24 hours check-in is available through directly booking with the hotel person only. So we had to cancel our online booking and made new booking in person.  The hotel is on a the service lane as the city of Thiruchirapalli has give way to many fly overs. Situated just 2 mins from the Thiruvanaikovil this was a idle place of junction located in Srirangam. The parking has to be done in the underground and the space is blocked by pillars making it a tricky business to park your vehicle. But the security person there was quiet helpful. Th...

 We made it to the book fest this year just a day before its closure.  The usual book fest would happen during Pongal as people like to go out during the pongal holidays. Last few book fests are affected by covid restrictions and this year it has a new month - February. In the YMCA grounds - the two wheelers can be parked to the left as soon as we enter the gates. On the right hand side is the exhibition on Indian freedom struggle. There pictures and texts about India's freedom fight. The final set of the exhibits are on current central's governments achievements and plans. The postal department has a stall here, one needs to fill in a form with adhaar details here and the department will give you stamps with your picture on it.  From here we need to walk almost a km crossing the car parking area to reach the book sellers stalls. As we went quiet early in the morning the visitors were and the temperature was bearable. The book sellers and publishers association BAPASI arr...

 After having been to Raja Raja Cholan and his Grandson built marvels, it would be unfair to ignore his Son built temple. So on the third and last day in Kumakonam we made it to Gangaikonda Cholapuram right after having our breakfast and check out from the hotel. We need to take the same by-pass from the hotel but in the opposite direction to reach Gangaikonda Cholapuram in 50 mins via Anaikarai and Thirupananthaal. After having crossed 3/4 th of the distance we need to drive through the Anaikkarai bridge which is on the Kollidam river. This bridge is one way only, so police personnel ask one side traffic to wait through while the other side drives through and vice-versa. Due to recent rains, we could see water brimming on both sides of the bridge. Unlike Airavateeswarar temple, this temple had lot of tourists visiting. Another Brahadeeswarar temple replica but the Lord here in the form of Lingam, is a foot bigger than in the Brahadeeshwarar temple. Even the Nandi is similar to big...

 As suggested by the staff at the hotel where we stayed, we went to two more temple in the evening of the second day in Kumbakonam Thiruvidaimarudhur This is a small town in Kumbakonam housing the Mahalingeswarar Temple. Lod Mahalingeswaraswamy was having his pooja and abhishegam at that time. We had to wait for 30 mins to get this darshan which was worth all the wait. We saw all the arti's. Next to this is a separate temple for the Lords's consort. Goddess Pirguchuntarakujambigai gave us an immediate darshan. From there we tried to get back to the Mahalingeswarar temple but were told to go out through the Pirguchuntarakujambigai temple only after seeing Goddess Moogambigai at its exit as this is a Brammahathi dosham removing temple. So we walked back and then left Thiruvidaimarudhur too. Both the temples were huge ones. Thirubuvanam This is another small town in Kumbakonam just around 2 kms from the above place. By the time we reached the Kampahareshwara temple, the sun was do...