To the land of Chettiars..

For a long time, I had this wish of going to Karaikudi and visiting all those picture perfect palaces and witnessing the rich cultural traditions of the Nagarathar and Nattar communities. So, when my friend invited me to a function in his village near Karaikudi, I gladly accepted it...He had given me the bus route information damn clearly so I was confident of reaching there in time without much hassles..But boy...I did a blunder..I boarded the wrong bus to the same destination(a different route). So, I had to wake up often and look for the place names in those dimly lit signboards. My friend went so crazy that he kept calling me every five minutes asking me where I was...he even asked me to ask the conductor for something(I was too sleepy to hear what this guy was speaking so I just kept saying "ook...oookkk" :D ). Somehow, I reached the place in time and the journey was a memorable one with all wonderful early morning views :) My friend was waiting for me in the bus stop and he took me to his house. 

Soon the function started and it was so awesome to see 6000-7000 people participating with such a lot of unity and cooperation. 

The food was so tasty and the atmosphere was so lively that I almost emptied my camera battery by that evening. I also got to see an auction where a handful of turmeric was bought by a lady for 14k bucks :O(I was more shocked when my friend said that this was "cheap" !!) We also went on a walk around the village scouting for locations from where we could get a good view of birds the next morning. We went on a quick visit to Pillayarpatti, Kundrakudi, Vairavanpatti...and man...these were some of the best maintained temples I have ever seen! We also went to Athangudi with the aim of seeing the making of the famous handmade tiles but failed in it as it was late in the evening. So, we returned to my friend's home and started to sleep after sharing some photography and astronomy tips.

 

The next morning, we went on a bird watching trip that we had planned the previous day and this was when I really cursed myself for not getting a good camera...my point and shoot was not able to capture even the closest of those birds in that dim light so I satisfied myself by just some naked eye observations..After bidding good bye to the villagers, we proceeded to Karaikudi where we had food in a community serve(I love eating in these kinda places). Then, we proceeded to Kanadukathan palace but where shocked to find that visitors are not allowed inside...But we managed to enter it(I won't say how ;) ) We even managed to get permission to take a couple of photographs inside the palace :)Then, we proceeded to Athangudi to take better photos(I was not happy with just "couple of photos" ). We paid an entry fee of 20 bucks and started clicking as we pleased..Some tourists were looking at me so strangely seeing all my photograph taking poses :D Suddenly, we had this idea of visiting the tile factory again and this time...it worked!! I took loads of photos and videos(for 1.5 GB). We bought a couple of tiles as souvenirs. Then, we proceeded to Thirumayam fort and had a nice time in the fort.