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I arrived early in the morning at the Madurai station after spending 10 hours in three trains for 3.70$US and quickly found a nice room with private bath for 5.80$US at the nearby TM Lodge. Travel in India is easy and very cheap.
The TM Lodge was a small friendly place where I met a number of people who did not mind voicing their disillusionment with politics.
The most common complaint that I heard, here and elsewhere, was about the high degree of corruption that has become the norm at all levels of government from the lowest clerk in the once proud Indian Civil Service to State First Ministers.
While I was there, Jayalalitha, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1991 to 1996 was sentenced to a year in prison for corruption but her sentence was stayed by the Madras High Court and nobody was surprised. In Bihar, Manoranjan Sigh, wanted for his involvement in 176 criminal cases was campaining with impunity for the Baniapur seat in the state Assembly and the police were not doing anything about it because he had powerful political protectors. The Indian Press is full of stories like this every day but nothing changes.
It is difficult for a westerner to understand how everyone knows about it and disapproves but no one seems to be able to do anything about it. In most countries where corruption of high ranking politicians is a problem newspapers would be closed or gagged for printing one tenth of what the Indian Press prints about the country's leaders. Perhaps the press is never censored because it is not perceived as a threat by those it attacks. Corruption has become a way of life that everyone just takes for granted with an incredible dose of cynicism as if the prevalent social ethics did not concern them.
This gentleman, Vinayaga Sundaram Mangalanathan remarked: "In America the President has to be a perfect saint while everyone drinks and runs around while here the people have to be very virtuous while our leaders are bandits!"
Netaji Rd, one of Madurai's main avenues.
India is the largest democracy in the world but it's a place where the majority has chosen its leaders amongst a corrupt self serving minority, time and time again since the death of Nehru.
The illiterate majority lives in villages, it needs primary schools, rural roads and infrastructures, land reform and the government builds universities, research institutes, and subsidizes hi tech industries that provide jobs for the educated minority. And the majority still vote for the same crowd of gangsters! I just don't understand; that is why I think that "India is a revolution that didn't happen"... yet.
This palace built in 1636 by Tirumalai of the Nayaka dynasty that ruled southern Tamil Nadu from the fall of the Vijayanagar empire in 1565 to their defeat by the British in 1781. Much of it has been destroyed but what is left is being restored. This is the entrance courtyard, looking west towards the palace.
This is the other end of the courtyard, looking east towards the entrance.
Tirumalai Nayaka who built this palace also built most of the Minakshi Temple which is Madurai's main attraction for pilgrims and for tourists. I have placed the photos of that important temple on a page of its own which you can access through a link at the bottom of this one.
These two well educated high caste girls resting on the steps of the palace were friendly enough and did not mind my taking their picture but they consistently evaded all my questions about their lifestyle, social customs and beliefs. It's a pity, I had so many things to learn from them. I send them my regards anyway in case they ever come across my site.
I like to take pictures of people but hate to intrude when they do not want to be photographed. This lady coming out of the palace looked down as I took the picture on the left and gave me a murderous dirty look as she went by. It made me feel bad for at least 5 minutes. On the right is another sample of what is called Indo-Saracenic architecture.
Sacred cows scavenging in street side waste dumps are a common sight in all Indian cities, not only in poor slums but also often in the city center and residential areas.
Indians who can afford it are proud of their homes, and more particularly of the insides, but don't seem to care at all about the streets and other common areas where they live. That probably reflects the highly individualistic nature of their vision of the universe.
Below four out of many small street shrines that can be seen in most Indian cities.
Here is a typical street scene taken on my way to the Mariamman Theppakulum tank in an eastern suburb of the city.
Another street scene in the same suburb.
And finally the Mariammam Teppakulam Tank (water reservoir) with its small temple in the center. It was built in 1646, also by Tirumalai Nayak, and is connected to the nearby Vaigai River by underground channels.
I have kept Madurai's great Minakshi Temple separate for it warrants a special page of its own like the Khajuraho Temples and Kochi's Kathkali show.
