Thursday, July 1, 2010

The beginning 2010....

Year 2010 started for me with my visit to One of South India's great temple towns, Madurai on 1st January, 2010. As per popular anecdote about this city- On the day the city was to be named, as Lord Shiva blessed the land and its people, divine nectar (Madhu) was showered on the city from his matted locks. This city was henceforth known as Madhurapuri, which later on became Madurai.

My mother was accompanying me this time. We started our bus journey from Bangalore to Madurai. It was scheduled to be only overnight journey and we were supposed to reach Madurai around 6 am. As usual when I am traveling it will never go smooth. Madurai trip was not different then that. You would have already guessed it by and large if you are regular follower of my blog.

I was as usual busy sleeping in bus and it was around 6 am my mother woke me up. She told that she is sensing something unusual the way driver was driving the bus. Bus was going Zigzag way on a straight highway which was very dangerous. In fact all passengers suspected that driver must be drunk that’s why he is driving like this. With so much annoyance for forced sacrifice of my dearest sleep, I got up and started to go towards driver’s seat to talk to him along with fellow passengers.

Suddenly one bus stopped just ahead of our bus, and that bus’s driver started yelling on our bus’s driver. Of course those hot headed dialogues between two drivers were in Tamil language and I could hardly understand anything out of it. One of my fellow passengers looking at my puzzled face came to rescue and translated their conversation. Our bus’s driver was getting scolding from other driver for his rash driving. Our bus’s driver was giving clarification that he is feeling so sleepy that he is not able to drive bus properly.

Hmmmm poor driver was forced to drive by his manager. Driver told he was continuously driving for 48 hours throughout various tourist locations. Their manager was not ready to give them rest even to sleep. Due to heavy rush of tourists, manager was lured to cash in profits by making all their staff to do overtime. as demand was high and his resourses to cater to that demand were optimal . The end result was that all of us were suffering…

We called our tour bus operator and asked if he can arrange to send any other driver so that bus can reach Madurai. But he showed his inability for the same and instead he started scolding driver. Horrified driver asked us to get in to the bus and he was all ready to drive the bus till Madurai in that condition. All the passengers chose not to continue in bus. Luckily after around 15 minutes waiting on highway one state transport bus stopped. We all got in to that bus and continued our journey towards Madurai.

Unluckily that bus was having TV inside. Let me put it this way, TV was not reason for our bad luck but the Tamil songs and comedy shows which were getting showcased in that TV were definitely the reason for bad luck for me and my mother. My mother was really terrified by continuous torturing of those shows and its super high volume.

With great respect for Tamil language I am not demeaning it by putting this statement. But to a person like my mother who has hardly listened Tamil words in life, to tolerate all Tamil songs, videos, comedy shows for almost 4 hours was really hell lot of pain.  We were like aliens in entire bus… on completion of one joke in TV almost all passengers used to laugh like mad people and enjoy every bit of it. The same time my mother was having exactly opposite reaction on her face.

I couldn’t stop my laughter on observing this contradiction in reactions. Looking at my laugh my mother got more irritated and started scolding me –“Why you are laughing now? As if you understand all jokes which they are yelling in TV here.”  I told my mom that my stay of 3 years at Bangalore and 6 months at Chile with all Tamil teammate’s gang at least gave me tolerance level now to withstand this language!!! She got more furious now as I was making fun of her irritation on those TV programs.

When finally we reached Madurai by 11 am, my mother took big sigh of relief. After almost 4 hours I saw a smile on my mother’s face!!!!! We took auto to reach Meenakshi temple straight away. Temple’s huge, amazingly sculptured tower at least reset my mother’s mood and took her out of shock of Tamil entertainment which she got in bus!!!

The Meenakshi temple is the geographic and ritual center of Madurai. The temple walls, streets and finally the city walls (ancient) were built around the temple in concentric squares, symbolizing the structure of the cosmos. Ancient Tamil classics mention that the temple was the center of the city and the streets happened to be radiating out like the lotus and its petals. It is one of the few temples in Tamil Nadu to have four entrances facing four directions.

While driving through lanes of Madurai, for sight seeing, suddenly our cab driver stopped our car at one corner. There was one Muslim durgah located there and just besides it a sign board of TVS Company was there. Driver started narrating stories of TVS then.

How many of us knew full form of  TVS Scooty  - The famous two wheeler which we drive in India. TVS stands for ‘TV Sundaram Iyengar and Sons Limited (TVSs)’. Needless to mention here that T. V. Sundaram Iyengar started his first business venture in 1911 in Madurai. I found utter respect and proud for Mr. T.V. Sundaram in Local public of Madurai. For them he was like a superhero.

My cab driver was showing us the place where TVS got started. TVS started its operations just behind one  Durgah [the holy shrine of Muslim Saint]. The company offices located there remains closed during prayer time of this durgah. According to his words Mr. TVS had utter faith in this Durgah. As gratitude to this durgah, he promised to the priest that his company will forever maintain it from the company’s funds. Mr. TVS believed that blessings from durgah were also one of the driving forces in success of the TVS Company. This is Real flavor of India don’t you think so.

I am not sure how true this information of TVS and its connection with Durgah was. But because it was given by a local person who had born and brought up in Madurai and knew the place for 50 years, my instinct tells me to believe in his words.

One more confession here, it was during return journey from this great temple city; the idea of writing this travel blog clicked in my mind. And then starting a travel blog based on my travel experience became my New Year resolution for 2010.

I know by and large this is the only one New Year resolution in my life which I am able to implement until now!!!! This visit was milestone for me. It gave me strength to revive life with new hopes and aspirations. I could gather strength to bounce back in life with my original zeal which I had lost somewhere.  Hope this new beginning will continue, and will give me enough interesting travel experience to share here in my blog.