When in Madurai......
Every trip to Madurai starts with a promise to self....a list of must-sees, must-dos ,not-to-forgets.....BUT, every trip to Madurai has always ended with wringing of hands over lack of time . Always, just a day or two there. Is it ever enough , for MADURAI !.... well, Hope springs eternal. Perhaps sometime soon , a longer, more leisurely break ...... In the meanwhile, have always loved doing the same things over and over again in Madurai. The staples apart , there are those "gundu-gundu" jasmines , the sheer maddening chaos of the pavement "mandis" which give Madurai its sobriquet Thoonga Nagaram ( The City that never sleeps), a tumultous tumble through the throbbing, timeless local market inside the beautiful Puthumandapam and , what else, the Jigarthanda from the hole- in -the- wall, "Famous Stall". THE MAHAL or, to be precise The Swarga Vilasam, the wing of the original monument that still stands.Thank goodness, the stunning Dance Hall , attac...