After the temple visit, I had lunch with my mother, sister-in-law and my 2 nieces at the hotel.
It was a Sunday brunch. I think they enjoyed the food and the spread. I couldn’t eat that much and unfortunately the Indian desserts were too sweet for my liking. Still nice to spend some time with them as I see my sister-in-law and her kids only once a year!
This morning I visited this very famous temple in Madurai, kindly arranged for me by a dear friend. It is one of the most famous and iconic temples in India.
This ancient temple has a recorded history going back to about 6 CE in Tamil literature. It is one of the few temples in India dedicated to a goddess.
The ancient temple was built by several kings over the centuries. The present form of the temple was built by a Pandiya king in about 1200 CE. This temple was completely destroyed in the 1400s. The current temple in its present form was constructed in the 14th century and progressively expanded.
The temple complex is spread over a 14 acres site. It has a large water tank (pottramarai kulam) within the temple complex, 14 towers (gopurams) and a famous 1000 pillared hall (ayiramkaal mandavam) and many other fascinating features.
This temple is the most famous landmark in Madurai and tens of thousands of people visit this temple every day.
I could not bring my phone into the temple and had to leave it in the car.
I had permission for the car to drive up to the East Gopuram. I was met at the gate and escorted through the temple to the Meenakshi Amman deity. I was blessed to be able to sit right in front of the deity and receive darshans or blessings.
Then I was escorted to the Sundareswar deity and again I was blessed to be able to sit right in front of the deity and receive darshan.
I was then brought to the main office where another priest blessed me and covered me with a ponnadai.
This was a wonderful day.
The temple itself is massive and filled with beautiful carvings, statues and colourful drawings.
I saw an elephant inside the temple blessing people and a cow to which people were paying respects to.
People were walking around the hallways, queuing for the darshans or simply sitting by the pottramarai kulam.
On the way there, the driver brought me to a big lake called Theppakulam. It was originally a flat piece of land but it was dug out and the sand from there was used to build the Meenakshi Amman temple. This sand was brought down there by the Vaigai River.
An interesting story I heard is that when they were digging for the sand, they came across a Vinayagar (Ganesha) statue stuck deep in the sand. It is called the Mukuruny Vinayagar. It is carved out of a single stone. No one knows when it was carved or where it came from. That statue is also now in the temple and I am glad I saw that too!
I started off my day at 7am with breakfast at the Grand Madurai.
A wonderful spread at the buffet to which I can do no justice as I am off to the temple at 830am.
Perhaps in the remaining days…
Amazing spread with freshly made dosas, appams and idils.
This is one of the best spreads I have seen in Madurai for breakfast.
I just arrived at this hotel in Madurai. This is the first time I am staying here.
I have previously stayed at the Gateway Madurai, a Taj hotel, in Pasumalai. That place is rather isolated and on a hill by itself with lots of peacocks. Beautiful, quiet place albeit the place is a bit rundown.
Then I started staying at the Heritage Madurai. This is a more central location and was formerly used by the British as a residence and a club. This was rebuilt as the Madura Club by Geoffrey Bawa, a famous Sri Lankan architect in 1974. It is considered one of his finer works. Later it was converted to a hotel. It is on a sprawling piece of land, lots of trees and greenery with individual houses. Beautiful place but again a bit outdated now.
This present hotel is brand new and up to the international standards with all the amenities. Very nice and comfortable with very clean rooms. I am impressed with this place.
I just had the lunch buffet at the hotel as I was hungry after the flight. Saw these familiar sounding dishes at the buffet spread!
I am accompanying my mother, who is aged 85, to Madurai this morning for her to visit relatives.
My mom is from Aruppukottai, a town which is an hour’s drive from Madurai. She came to Singapore with my grandfather and grandmother sometime in 1952 when she was 12 years old. My grandfather had come to Singapore on his own in 1940 to find work. Unfortunately soon after he arrived, the war broke out and he was stuck here till 1946. During the war he was inspired by Subhas Chandra Bose, saw him at the Padang in Singapore and then fought for the Indian National Army. After the war he went back to India and brought my mother and grandmother here.
They stayed at Lorong Maha, which is off Jalan Ulu Sembawang, a place I remember well with fond memories. My grandmother grew all her vegetables and they had 3 cows which they kept for milk and yogurt.
A long time ago, traveling to India had to be by ship. There used to be 2 vessels I recall which plied that route; SS Rajula and MV Chidambaram. That journey would take 7 days. I remember my grandparents taking those ships. I also recall when they returned to Singapore, they would disembark at Colleyer Quay.
Later when commercial flights started, I would take a flight to the then Madras (now Chennai) and then take the bus to Aruppukottai. It used to be an overnight 13 hour journey, one which I have undertaken many times. At that time it was the Thiruvalluvar bus that we used to take.
Then they started domestic flights from Madras to Madurai, which cut down the 12 hour bus journey from Madras to Madurai. I recall I was once on the flight from Madurai to Chennai and a famous actor from the 1950s and 60s, Gemini Ganesan was on that flight. He occupied a seat his parrot which was in a cage was on the next seat
There is now a direct flight from Singapore to Madurai! Thank goodness for that.
The earliest picture of my mother.
Madurai is a city that has changed and modernized quite a bit. For eg the hotel I am staying in is really nice. The highways connect the cities and there are good restaurants. But in many ways it still retains its heritage and charm that I remember from the first time I came here in 1986. Driving on the roads you still see cows and goats, cars honking incessantly and road side stalls and of course people everywhere. Quintessentially India and thank goodness for that!
Had an early morning breakfast at PS Cafe at Dempsey with a good friend U Zyn.
U Zyn was a client who became a friend. I still remember the first time I had to handle his matter. He was referred to me by a neighbor when I was in KL. The matter was urgent and complicated so I had to be on several calls with the client whilst I was still in KL and had my colleagues attend to him in Singapore.
It was tedious matter and painful at times in part because of the behavior of the other party. But in the end we achieved a good outcome for the client and I am glad everything turned out well eventually for him.
I also didn’t know then that he was staying near me.
This morning we had a good time chatting about many topics such as the budget, housing prices and the cost of living and I found out that we have many common views on a range of topics.
U Zyn also likes to drive in Malaysia so we are tentatively planning a driving trip up north next month!
This small joint along Race Course Road has existed for some time and their specialty is their ice cream, especially the coconut ice cream. In addition to ice cream they do have waffles and beverages. It is truly strange that this place exists in a location that is otherwise filled with Indian restaurants
So today I had lunch with a good friend and colleague, Harish, at Serangoon Road. Just when we were finishing lunch, another good friend and colleague, Haq, messaged me. I told him that we were having lunch. Whereupon he asked if we were going thereafter to have ice cream at this place. I said we were planning to and he said he would join us there.
When I was driving there another good friend, Kesa, asked if we were going to have ice cream there since he was also at Serangoon Road having lunch. So we all ended up having ice cream there and talking about the state of affairs in this country.
Three is a crowd but what happens when there is four? I wonder…
I had lunch with a colleague at Osteria Mozza yesterday. They are now located at Mandarin Gallery. I remember when they were located at MBS. Good pizzas!
We had arranged this lunch sometime back but it got postponed because of work commitments on both our parts.
He is younger colleague about 8 years into practice. Just had a new born son and he was telling me about the difficulties he was having at home managing the baby, the wife and work. He looked tired.
Also he is having difficulties with his existing boss who wasn’t getting much work, didn’t seem to want to work hard anymore and wasn’t guiding the younger ones well. As a result of low billings, his bonus last year was badly affected and doesn’t look like it will improve this year. His work flow this year looks weak and the morale in his team is low as a result of the way their boss is working.
He wants to start out anew at a new place and he knows he needs to do it soon before he hits 35 but the job market is weak and no one is hiring.
I do feel sorry for the younger people nowadays. Work is much harder with longer hours and the billing demands are also greater. Also the chances of social mobility are poorer. The days of being able to purchase a decent property and a car after working about 5 to 6 years on a decent salary and retiring comfortably seems to have evaporated. I do wonder what is the long term solution for these people and if it’s a peculiarly Singapore problem?
There was news today that 8 USAID projects in Nepal would cease as a result of Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s cutting back on the staff and budget of the USAID. That’s a pity because that country has wonderful people who are prepared to work hard and uplift themselves to give their children a better life. It’s just that it’s a mountainous place and difficult to have factories and industries so they rely a lot on tourism and selling handicrafts.
I was very fortunate last May to be able to visit Kathmandu to give a series of lectures. I have never been there and was initially apprehensive about the trip. I arrived on a Saturday night and I had a Sunday free. The lectures were on a Monday and Tuesday and I was leaving on a Tuesday night. So I arranged for a car and a guide to bring me around Kathmandu on the Sunday and I was so glad that I did.
I didn’t know Nepal had so many world heritage sites and clearly it must have been a historical place of significance looking at the number of old Hindu and Buddhist temples there. It is said that Emperor Asoka visited some of these sites in 300 BC. It is a pity that the country is unable to spend money to promote the place for tourism because there are so many things and places to do and see. They have very talented craftsmen, decent food and good hotels. It’s an ideal place for hiking and about 80% of the country is covered with forests so the air is fresh.
The first place I visited was a very famous Sivan temple called the Pashupathinath Temple by the Bagmati river. The temple is a world heritage site and is considered one of the holiest pilgrimage sites for Hindus. It is the oldest Hindu temple in Kathmandu and a very important sacred site for Hindus. By 730am there were thousands of people already there. It is clearly a historical place and from available records, it has been in existence at that location from at least 400 CE. It is a sprawling temple complex and I walked though only the main parts of the temple. There were people praying, singing and chanting everywhere I looked. No cameras, videos or footwear allowed inside the temple.
I next visited the famous Buddha Stupa at Bhodinath. This is another world heritage site and apparently this was the place where Tibetan Buddhism began. It’s a huge stupa and I walked around it 3 times, although I understand some people spend the entire day walking around the stupa. There are bells along the side that people ring as they walk by.
I then visited the Pathan old town. This is an ancient royal city, a lovely site with lots of old palaces and many shops selling arts and craft. This is another world heritage site. Full of beautiful handcrafted items and whilst there I purchased 2 beautiful thangka paintings. I also had lunch with my guide here on a rooftop restaurant. They also have shops selling cashmere sweaters and scarfs. These are made from the goats that are native to that part of Nepal.
Finally in the evening, I visited the famous monkey temple. Another ancient sacred site for Buddhists. It was quite a climb up the hill to visit the temple but once there you get a lovely view of the Kathmandu valley. The place has lots of monkeys!
I was in Nepal where Mount Everest is but I was nowhere near it. Then someone told me there were mountain flights that flew past the Himalayas every morning if the weather was good. So I took a 6am flight on a Tuesday morning. It was a 1 hour flight and I saw Everest from the sky! There are many such flights and these flights were mostly full. The people I met there were friendly and were sharing stories of the various places they had visited in Nepal.
And finally standing on a suspension bridge over a deep valley en route to the airport! The bridge was so long I could not even finish walking to the other end!
I only realized the importance and significance of some of these places I visited after that. I should have read up on these places before I went there. In fact a doctor friend I know well told me that he had been to the Sivan temple and that’s it’s very famous and it was only when he was there that he received a vision for the name for his then newly born daughter. There were also many more places I could have visited. Certainly a place I must visit with more time and more reflection!
How can one come to Taiwan and not visit this restaurant.
This restaurant commenced operations in 1958, later obtained a Michelin star and they now have branches in quite a few countries.
They have quite a few outlets in Taipei. They still occupy the location where the original restaurant once stood but they no longer operate it as a restaurant in that location.
They open at 11am and already by 12 there is a queue.
The dumplings are very good and it’s amazing that after all these years and with so many outlets, they maintain their quality. The prices are unsurprisingly cheaper than Singapore.
daily musings 