All the way through a CITY BUS...

     Traveling through the city bus in my city is the best and the worst experience of my daily evenings during college life. It will always stay fresh in my thoughts, as I look back the memory lane. And, I decided that if I need to do justice to it, I'll have to post it as one of my early blogs.
     As one of the main players in my college tennis team and the only day scholar from the team, I practice my game every day at college and head home alone. After my regular class hours, I change into jersey and tracks and get into the ground till about a couple of hours pass by in the evening. At about the hour of the evening twilight, I start towards my home. My college is situated outside the city limits, along the highway and has got a beauty of its own, to look at in the evenings. I cross the road dragging my feet along the path and reach the bus stop with full of fresh air beating against my lungs. The bus stop is actually a tea stall and a non-veg inn filled with my college boys. Opposite the stop is the area dam with a broken but yet a fun-filling entrance.
     I wait there till I get 'a city bus'. It rarely passes along and even rarer that it stops. And, still I always manage to catch one which really amuses me even now. Sometimes, the bus is stuffed with people from the nearby villages and students from the neighboring colleges. I dump myself and my bag into it with no heart to go but just reasoning it out with me reaching home sooner. To mention, the villagers are always kind enough to hold my racket till I get a seat and not just throw a nasty and annoyed look at me like some city geeks (guess, they were all born with the silver spoon).
     On the way home, I have a lot of watching to do for I love looking through the window. We cross the 'ring road' from where I get a scenic view of the 'elephant hills' (one of my favorite legendary landmarks in Madurai). Following it, we cross the artificial pond known as ‘the theppa kulam’. It is one of the city identifications too. Opposite it is the Arts College filled with girls and boys enjoying life (I couldn’t do that in my college because I am doing my engineering!). As we get into the city, I glance at the colorful metal shops all the way to the next area. The St. Mary’s church which we cross to reach the bus stand is a feast to the eyes and mind.
      Finally, when the bus reaches the stand, I get down and cross the road to the opposite bus stand to catch the bus to my stop. By then, it’s all dark and lively. On the contrary, every bus that comes there can get me home. Before getting into the bus, I sometimes buy boiled groundnuts off the mobile vendor, which soothes my hunger temporarily. To enjoy the trip, I get down in the next stop and walk a long way home. I have to walk under a bridge to get to my residential enclave. Hence, on the way, during Thursdays, I get ‘prasadham’ (food kept for god) from the sai baba temple due to special prayers going on.
     And, I’m home at last! I bet no one can enjoy a day this way…

madurai unveiled

       Madurai, to start with, is the famous ‘temple city’ as known by other city dwellers. But for the residents of Madurai, like me, it’s something different, something a lot more. Not just one name to call by, but a whole bunch of historically significant ones such as ‘Thoonga nagaram’, ‘madhura’, ‘madurapuri’ so on and of course, the ones we name ourselves.

 

    Throwing light on the fact that Madurai was called the ‘Thoonga nagaram’, which meant, ‘the city that never sleeps’, anyone would tell you that it meant to flatter you with the lights all over the city. Even if on one side it was true (nothing can beat Madurai), it actually meant that the shops all over Madurai operated 24x7. This one indeed states one of the best of Madurai. 

 

    An important piece of fact to share is that Madurai can also be known as the biggest mixture of cultures and heritage. If you dig deep into the old books, along with the dust you can find information leading to the time of the nayaks. They were the people who ruled Madurai, a bigger and better Madurai. It is said that the raja, thirumalai nayakar designed Madurai into a set of concentric circles, surrounding the ‘world famous’ meenakshi amman temple at the heart of it, and each circle consisting of a different type of artifact such as the jewelry, textiles, food and so on. To fill up the different areas he invited a group of people specialized in each art. And that is why I am here. It happened because he also invited a group of gold smiths known as aasaris or asarlu to prepare the jewelry. That is why you can find all kind of people in Madurai from north, east, west and south India or so the legend says.

    Born and brought up in Madurai, I am accustomed to all kinds of culture and happy about it. Apart from this, there are a bunch of recent histories to be put forth. The Vaigai River! When I was a kid, I lived almost to the brink of the city limits, known as Kochadai. A few kilometers further outside the city we could find the river thinning along the road towards the city, where my father and I would have a nice bath on the river banks and return home to taste my mother’s yummy preparation. Adding to this I remember my self buying roasted groundnuts, corns and javvu mittai (a stretchable pink and white candy) off the mobile vendor. And the grandest of them all was the temple festival at my grandmother’s home, which was staged overnight and which I used to watch sitting on the road.

   The area I lived in was occupied mostly by the workers of the Madura coats mill. Owing to that fact, my family had a close bond with the others. In the evenings the street would be filled with all of us playing badminton. And there was this club used by us situated across the lane (currently the hesitance hotel). I even watched a couple of open-air movies in side the club with my best friend whose father was a worker too.

   Considering all these proofs of a well enjoyed childhood life, (even though all of them weren’t mentioned) who would weigh Madurai less? There is even a saying which goes, “Even a donkey which circled Madurai would not leave it”. Then, which human being can leave? Definitely not Me!