Madurai – The city that never sleeps

I hail from the lovely and peaceful town of Madurai. I did my schooling and engineering from this place. It is known for the majestic Meenakshi Amman Temple. The temple was nominated as one of the wonders of the world. This is a very ancient city and was the capital of the Pandya Kingdom. Tamil the language is believed to have born in this very city. The river Vaigai flows through the city.Gandhiji forego his clothes and started being bare bodied after his visit to Madurai. The city thrives on its tourism and textile industry. The mention of the city Madurai to the Chennai guys usually welcomes a stare. The Tamil film industry has done its best to portray all the Madurai guys as ruffians who carry sickles inside their shirts. On the contrary Madurai is a very peaceful town.

The city is very conservative but is changing now. KK Nagar and Anna Nagar are the posh localities of the city and this is where you will find a lot of young population hanging out with their friends. The best places to visit in Madurai are its temples. Madurai people are crazy about movies and you will find many movie halls here, my favorite being the Mapilai Vinayagar theatre. Many good movie halls have come up in recent times, like Big Cinemas – Ganesh Theatre but during the days when I used to stay in Madurai Mapilai Vinagayar theatre was a craze. Watching a movie in that hall would make my day, and it was the only theatre in Madurai that would play English movies with an English audio. We do boast of a CCD that is at Anna Nagar and if you want to kill some time then it is one of the places you can check out. My friend owns a recreation cum picnic spot called Hawa Valley. This is some 20 kms drive from the city and has recreation facilities like Karting , Boating, hilly landscape and big lawns. It has a restaurant that serves good food. There is a coffee pub called Tornado at Chinna Chokikulam, which attracts the Madurai junta too.If you are planning for a one-day picnic then Alagar Temple and Vaigai Dam are the places you need to check out.

You would have heard that Mumbai is the city that never sleeps and there is activity all the time. Madurai is a city down south, which never sleeps. This is a city where you will find hot idlys at three in the morning. The teashops are open almost 24 hrs a day. Madurai is a transit point for all who travel to places like Kodaikanal, Munnar,Thekkady, Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari.

Most of the population is Tamil, but like any other city in India; you will find many Marwaris from Rajasthan. The main business market is around the Meenakshi Amman temple and you can find lot of Marwaris running theirs shops here. The other communities present in Madurai are Memans, Shikarpuri Sindhis and Sourashtrians. The Sourashtrians are a community unique to Madurai. These people originally were from the Sourashtra district of Gujarat. The invasion of Mohammed Ghazni drove them down south and they have not looked back since then.
If you want to know more about Madurai please leave a comment or you can mail me.