It’s been quite stressful over the weeks checking out payments, creating designs and working on annual filing works. So, this is the time I decide to visit Madurai, a city in central Tamil Nadu which is in India, that’s in South Asia, and that’s in Planet Earth, somewhere in Solar sys… you know!

Quick intro: Im running my software - creative business in Chennai, India,….**yea you know**,

With such a hectic week which I’ve been facing for quite sometime, I decide to leave for Madurai, nope not for a retreat, but meeting a client who’s been delaying payment for for a quite loooong time! This time I leave with my Appa, board the night train from Chennai and here’s what happens from here…

We find our seats, settle down, wave a high at our seat mates, old couple join the seats after sometime and.. they’ve got the same seat number as ours, same, it seems they’ve booked earlier.
Well, we wait for the ticket checker and find out that their tickets have been upgraded to the AC coach. So very kind of the old couple to offer us the AC coach and off we go to the AC coach! (Something good in life, amidst all confusions, I sigh!)

We settle, make ourselves comfortable, and… it’s cool. One hour later…. It’s so cold in here that I can’t feel my right feet and i peep down at my dad who’s sleeping like a snail folding himself to get rid of the biting cold!

Every hour passing was like a year passing! 7am the train reaches Madurai!

It’s time to get the hell out of Antarctica and get to the real world! Landing at Madurai gives me these Ghilli feels ‘Sadugudu sandhanam Sadugudu kumkumum’ feels and we walk to the room! (Understand this feel by searching the Internet)

The client texts now that he is available for the next day! So, appa takes control of the day by saying,”son, it’s time for some Dharshan! Let’s get going to meet the Meenakshi goddess!” I’m like “okay, let’s do this” because why not checkout the 1000 year old architecture and beat the heat with some Jigarthanda (others call it Falooda!)

Entering the Meenakshi temple:
Was happy about the COVID precautionary measures taken: no edible offerings, no entry without masks, not to worry about social distancing because not much crowd and the temple is big enough to maintain distancing! Here’s what i got to do:

Jigarthanda time
The Madurai heat got me here, but Uhhhh! I expected much… felt nice for the heat but… wasn’t that great than what I had from the Jigarthanda shop at Chennai! Or.. might be I didn’t have it in the right place! 😞

Our room was just 10 mins from the temple, so we started to walk… that was some bad decision which you’ll need to avoid! Madurai is engulfed in this dry heat! Don’t fall prey to the heat 🥵 it felt walking on some fire with some “Goundamani poo midhi” and Kenyan Nenje ezhu feels (again browse the net to understand)

Back to room and crashed for sometime. I get back to designing works after the nap! Meanwhile appa crashes flat and he’s dived into several layers of his sleep!

Evenings are super pleasant and feels nice for some long walks! Street food is bubbly, nice and delicious! Don’t miss this at Madurai!

The next day:
Starts at 6:30am, all ready for the meeting. But the meeting is at 11am. So, appa again takes charge: “Son, it’s time for some Azhagar temple” .. Ah damn, here we go again! - okay, we leave for the temple, get amazed by the old temple structures and getting back to the room by noon! 

Here’s now I get charged for the meeting and two hours later, after some discussions, negotiations, after some “but when will I really get the payment” and followed by drafting some mails, we get back to the room and it’s time for the lunch! But it’s 3pm almost! We go to this place and order some meal. Madurai isn’t just famous for food, but also on how they serve you with adulation. Here’s this elderly lady who asks me t

So here’s where we visit for some good food:

Pack up some hot idlis, get some snacks packed for the travel! 

Here’s what I did on a very short stay at Madurai! Drafting this on the train returning home!