Our wanderings and perceptions

 In last week of May we decided to make a trip to Coimbatore. Our friends there have been calling us to their city for a long time now. On a Thursday early morning we left Chennai in car. We had breakfast at Madhurandhagam. From there we went all the way to Coimbatore with just a tea break at a Salem toll. All the way from the place of entry to Coimbatore to hotel we saw many educational institutions, mainly the PSG institutions, their Arts college, engineering and medical colleges. Just shows the importance Coimbatore gives to education. On reaching Coimbatore we were blown when our fab hotels booking was turned down at the hotel. Fab hotels online partner seem to mess up bookings. Our friend came to rescue by suggesting MK Lodge. Tucked in the busy Gandhipuram area of Coimbatore, it was a humble accommodation. Just one room available in the 3rd floor with no lift option we were set up for a good exercise for the next few days of our stay. Air conditioned room with good connectivi...

 On a summer Sunday we set out to look for farm lands just outside the city limits. Our place of visit was Thakkolam. An humble village within 70kms from Chennai, Thakkolam offers huge lands for farming. The Kosasthalaiyar river flows through this village giving it ample water for the vegetation. Thakkolam looked green with huge lands, some with trees and some with paddy. There were barren lands too in acres. Paddy fields and water gushing out of pump sets were a treat to watch in spite of the scorching heat. Thakkolam has a railway station near-by. Easily reachable. Some pics from the visit,

 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...