I have always been a
crazy fan of south Indian hotel sambhar. Srirangam, was just another excuse to
exploit my taste buds.
Having spent 3 beautiful days
at temple town of Srirangam, I should ideally be talking about the altar &
its architecture.
Of the many factors that
made this trip special, yummy luncheons were just a beginning.
Few minutes away from Ranganathar temple, "Vamana
Royal" on Uthira Street was a superb bet in terms of lodging. Uthira Steet
surrounds the temple & labels itself by direction- North- East- South &
West Uthira.
Our mornings started with
freshly brewed filter coffee at East Uthira. Then a small walk down the South
Uthira Street to gaze the main temple entrance ( Rajagopuram).
Wet floors, design rangolis
along the West & North streets leading to the White tower or
"Vellai Gopuram" - would complete our walk.
Be it the morning stroll, or
break between temple visits, mythological stories fuelled my excitement in this
new town. Ma-in-law's story telling was akin to Grandma's summer time stories.
Shrines & sculptures, were thus, a brick & mortar representation of
these mythological narrations.
Final day of our stay had a
packed itinerary - a temple visit, pre-wedding ceremony to attend, bags to pack
and a train to catch. And all this in a half day's time. We knew we will
land up compromising on our interaction time with wedding family. But
Sriangam had different plans for us.
On the penultimate day, as we
returned from "Mani Vilas" - after a sumptuous dinner, known faces
& familiar voices filled the hotel corridors. It took few mins to
believe, that the wedding group had checked-in to the same hotel as ours.
Astonishment, followed by inquisitiveness from both ends, filled up the
initial moments, slowly giving way to introductions and
greetings. Needless to say, the next day, we bumped into each other,
atleast a dozen times - initially at the corridors & then at the
temple.
Call it "Srirangam and
its surprises", "Gods & their Gopurams", this is probably
the first time I have multiple titles for a post
3 comments:
There are lot of temple cities in Tn. I am planning an exploration from some time, but was never finding an opportunity. Will try to visit Srirangam too sometime.
So, how was the dinner?
@ Parambyte- Dinner was good and lunch even better. Restaurants there, offer heavy snacks for dinner, and meals for Lunch.
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