Chennai - A blend of the modern and the traditional - Concluding part

             Wherever places had been dug up for the Chennai Metro, the areas were neatly demarcated with tin sheets on which strings of lights served as warnings for motorists, in the dark. No rubble lay around.

             We noticed that all the buses had their destinations marked only in Tamil, which could be troublesome for non-Tamilians. Women safely commuted, wearing loads of gold ornaments! However, the unscrupulous auto-drivers were a bane!

Ashta Laxmi temple

                 We saw the Ashta Laxmi temple, with various forms of the Goddess on two levels. The stone-hewn idols were benign and beautiful. Then we saw the Parthasarathy temple dedicated to Lord Krishna and Lord Balaji with his two consorts. This temple was  ISO certified.

Parthasarathy temple

Parthasarathy temple

Fort George

Government Museum

Thiruvalluvar Kottam

Thiruvalluvar Kottam

Thiruvalluvar Kottam

Guindy Snake Park

                        The half-day’s sightseeing tour of Chennai that we had booked, was a whirlwind tour of all the must-see attractions like the historic Fort George, the first fort constructed by the British in India; that housed a museum, the Government Museum with priceless antique sculptures; the profusely carved Thiruvalluvar Kottam, dedicated to the memory of the poet-saint Thiruvalluvar; the snake park at Guindy, with its collection of reptiles; the Padmanabhaswamy temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu reclining on Sheshnag with Goddess Laxmi beside; and lastly, the famed Marina beach, Asia’s longest beach.

Marina Beach

             There, horse-borne policemen patrolled its shores. We watched the milky waves lashing against the beach with awe, even as couples and families laughed and frolicked amidst the waves.

              Later, we visited the Kapaleeshwar temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva. Peace permeated us and our Chennai sight-seeing ended on a blissful note, with just one regret. Time didn’t permit us to visit the centers that sold the colorful golu dolls displayed by Tamilians during Navaratri. Hence a return trip is on the cards!

Concluded

The abridged version of this travelogue was published in the Sakal Times newspaper published in Pune, in 2015.

The copyright of this travelogue and snaps is with Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan.