The Athens of East – A journey through the memory lane

Madurai is one of the oldest cities in the world and one of the continuously inhabited city. This city is filled with fun, excitements, spirituality, festivals and all sorts of excitements. I would say Madurai is Kaleidoscope City. It looks different every time you see it. Peoples also call Madurai as “Toonga Nagaram”- The city never sleeps!!! And city of Festivals- Yes! We have festivals 365 days a year. All this things make Madurai a beautiful old city which is still living with its nativity.
I would say that my childhood days in Madurai are the happiest part of my life so far. When I was in Madurai as a kid my parents used to take me to Meenakshi temple, I used to be very excited every time we go to temple. Not because of my spirituality quotient its because Meenakshi temple is filled with lots n lots of shops which sells toys and other stuffs.
Madurai is a well planned city which is planned in a square city Patten by the early Pandya kings. Each and every street specializes in a particular product which is one of the unique features of that time. We used to go around the streets and enjoy the short eats which are inseparable from the streets of Madurai.
As a weekly routine my grandpa used to take me to our paddy fields and banana farms every weekend. I used to enjoy a lot during that time to see small creature running here and there and water for irrigation flowing through the small canals. I used to walk inside the water which excites me a lot. I also enjoy the bath at our well and motor pump attached to it. Playing on the street with the children’s in the village is always fun. But, my homework eats lot of my evening which makes me worry.
Now it comes the TV time. The monopoly channel of that time Doordarshan which seldom telecast Tamil programs. Ours is one of the few houses which own a TV set and a huge crowd used to gather at our house and even outside our house to watch the few hours of Tamil telecast. I still remember that people used to read the story for the episode of Mahabharata every Sunday morning in the newspaper and watch the episode in Hindi. Its lot of fun…..
Most schools in Madurai took their school students for one day outing for Tirumalainayakar Palace, Maariamman Thepakulam (Water Tank), Gandhi Museum and Rajaji Park. This made the kids in Madurai an expert in the places. Even though I got bored to the routine areas every year it gives us some happiness of being together with friends outside the school. The places are still there and whenever I used to go by the way used to remember my childhood days and the faces of my friends flashes in my mind.
I consider a visit to Madurai a event of bio-diversity which makes me refreshed every time I go there. I hope every one of us will have some places like this which makes us refreshed and relived from our work environment. Let’s make a New Year resolution to spend some time by visiting those places and enjoy our life forever.