Nature’s beauty was seen at Palani!
My nephew had come to pick us up and took us to their home.
I was invited by the cold air that’s unique to the districts lined up along the western ghats!
The town looked all green and small mounds seen here and there.. Dindigul which was famous for lock and key manufacturing was the district in which Palani was a small town. Life there seemed totally different from chennai. Chennai was a municipality (half of chennai where I was a resident) by then and Palani was under municipality as well. But an ocean of difference was found between the two places. Maybe because I was new to that place!
Well, coming to the crux of the story:
Trip with dad:
I visited Palani Murugan temple with my dad and my nephew. My nephew had a catering business and they used to supply neiveidhiyam prasadam for the principal deity Lord Murugan on order basis. So we had a smooth entry and did not have to wait in the queue to see the God.
Winch or rope car is the most preferred method of climbing up the palani hills
This is the winch track at Palani
Rope car rendering a splendid view of Palani Devasthanam
We got down the hills via stairs dug out on the hill
Some people just climb up the stairs as part of their prayer or just like an exercise. Or even to cut down on the cost. My dad was a person who loves doing things quickly rather than spending whole day on just one thing. When we climbed down we had chattered all the time and we had total fun doing that. As soon as we were at the foot of the hill we were ready to return to Chennai.
Bigger trip with my whole family
We’d stayed at Ganpat Hotel just at the foot of the hill. We’d taken a family room and we were 8 of us in that room. The view from the hotel room was so good and the room service, the price of the room per day was unimaginable. We felt it wasvworth every penny spent. We were there right after an auspicious day at Palani temple. The famous Thai poosam where people take kavadi and pierce spear shaped needles in their tongue as part of their prayers. Some people do it on any normal day and tonsuringbhappens almostt every day. Every temple in Tamil Nadu has a devoted place in the temple’s control for tonsuring. This is a form of prayer for hindus in South India. After tonsuring it is believed that the prayers shall be fulfilled by the Lord.
Few tips for people who would like to visit the shrine
Book a hotel room which is situated closer to the tonsuring place as the street adjacent to that leads one straight to the main entrance of the temple which has both easy and difficult staircases. If you want to choose winch or rope car, even that is located at the same entrance.
Apart from edible souvenir – panchamrutam (sweet kheer made using jaggery and five fruits) and white sugar balls one cannot find anything worthwhile to take back home as souvenir!
