As a child the trip to Nanguneri was long and arduous as we had to take two or three different buses to reach this place from Ooty! An arid small town in the uncompromising dry region of Tirunelvelli close to tip of India, it always fascinated me as to how and why people to chose to migrate to this small town of little means where agriculture was always a dangerous gamble lacking water and rains. The vast lake of Nanguneri from which the name perhaps also came (Nangu-eri or four lakes in tamil) provided the sustainable water for drinking and also to some extent for irrigating the nearby villages. 
The other attraction perhaps was the temple, massive 11th century structure of stone and limestone. The temple itself is a fascinating amalgam of ancient architecture with brilliant sculptures, paintings, woodwork, stone carvings, limstone mouldings, brilliant scaffoldings, spacious corridors yet to be recorded in a coffee table book form! In the family we have hundreds of pictures of this small town throughout our nearly four decades of regular visits each of which forming layers or vignettes of our collective memory of this interesting small town. For one thing the place never grew beyond a point in our collective memory of years that went by and from the recollection of our elders, the time clock actually had stopped at this town more than a century ago when the few shops and a scandalously trecherous bus route was built through the town a busstand was set up. The four sharp bends on this stretch is a test for any driver of skill and also a pleasure to watch as the drivers behind the wheels of the massive buses take the hairraising turns at considerable speed blasting away on their air horns.
No comments:
Post a Comment