We wanted to see the Meenshiksha Temple today. It is open from 4 am until 12:30 pm and again 4 pm until 9.
We have brekkies in the hotel, nothing great, hohum, idly, sambhar, dosa, milk coffee. So jaded! After having breakfast we head out to the temple. We should have thought about it a bit more. We brought day packs with us and both had mobile cameras.
We read in the morning paper that there had been a fire at one of the entrances or gopura at the tower. Of course, this being India, several locals approached us and said, “temple closed, big fire” come to look in from top of building. Small money, small money”. The paper had nothing about a closing of the entire complex, just one entrances. We approached from the west side and walked around to the north entrance, that was where the fire was, passing that we head to the east entrance, and take our shoes off in preparation to enter the temple, when we are told, you must check your packs, so we head to the south entrance.
The crowds are growing and there is a lot of pushing and jostling. We find the south entrance and check our shoes and now get into a line to check our packs. There is a HUGE sign over the window where a single woman is doing both intake and outtake of packs and luggage. The line stalls and tempers among the Indians are even starting to fray. People and jumping the line because it has stalled and that is making all tempers flare. Finally, we get to the front of the line. I take my IPad out, as the sign says don’t leave any valuables such as cameras, jewelry, cash, etc in your pack. Ok, we did that I’ve got my IPad and Bill has his phone and monocular. There are 2 separate security lines, one for women, and one for men. I go through the female one and she gives me a good pat down, more invasive than the airport, and asks what’s that? My purse, she opens it and says, no it is a tablet, you can’t take this in. I start to get ornery and say, the other sign says to remove valuables from your packs....which is it?
It is clear, as this was our first encounter with Indian mindset, I just couldn’t face another minute of it. We exited and put our shoes back on and headed to find a cold bottle of water. We ended up at the Chentoor Hotel where we had drinks the previous day. Their rooftop doesn’t open until 4, so we opted for the street level restaurant. The food was pretty good.
I was sweating like a pig; half from the heat, half from the stupidity that we had just encountered at the temple. I settled on a dosa and Bill got some kind of curry. I clearly needed a lie down before we tackled the temple again. We would not bring anything with us, not packs, nor cameras, nor IPad. Nothing! We also sent an email to Audrey and Stephanie regarding this policy, as they were heading to the temple tomorrow.
We lay down and read for a while before heading out just before 4 to the temple again. We left our shoes at the South Gate and entered. There were 2 entry lines. We went thru the metal detectors and had a pat down. The female guard asked what the little case holding proxi-brushes was. I explained it was for my teeth, mimicking a toothpick type motion. She did not indicate one way or another if she understood, or even cared, but she let me through the gate. We now see a little ticket booth outside the inner entrance. We purchase our 2 tickets at 50 R each. There are again 2 lines. One is clearly only Indian, and the other has no one on line. We are ushered down the empty staircase and railing. I’m thinking, foreigners privilege, front of the queue. WRONG! The long line was for Hindus only. One can get into the inner sanctum only if you are Hindi. We had free reign of the outer part of the temple, which after reading the Michael Woods book was really kind of a let down.
The temple is famous for being dedicated to the goddess of the fish eyes. This is Shiva’s wife. She gave birth to two sons, Ganesh and Murugan. Since we didn’t take a camera inside, there are no photos. (Insert sad-faced emoji here). The tower on the left is the west tower and we don’t have pictures up closer because we had to leave our cameras back in the room.
It is the exterior of the temple that is the exciting part. Every exterior, and interior, surface is covered in bas relief statuary. All intricately carved and colored. It is hard to describe the enormity of that artistic job. There are 4 towers, and each one is over 100 feet tall with the south tower being the largest and most elaborate. The west tower alone has 1100 carved images (according to the guide books!) and they are colored in varying shades of blue, green, and pinkish. The carvings are of different versions of the god and goddess and their attendants.
We left the temple somewhere around 5:30 or 6 pm and headed back to the Chentoor and had a bite to eat. We were off to Kodai in the morning and had to check out early.
I was sweating like a pig; half from the heat, half from the stupidity that we had just encountered at the temple. I settled on a dosa and Bill got some kind of curry. I clearly needed a lie down before we tackled the temple again. We would not bring anything with us, not packs, nor cameras, nor IPad. Nothing! We also sent an email to Audrey and Stephanie regarding this policy, as they were heading to the temple tomorrow.
We lay down and read for a while before heading out just before 4 to the temple again. We left our shoes at the South Gate and entered. There were 2 entry lines. We went thru the metal detectors and had a pat down. The female guard asked what the little case holding proxi-brushes was. I explained it was for my teeth, mimicking a toothpick type motion. She did not indicate one way or another if she understood, or even cared, but she let me through the gate. We now see a little ticket booth outside the inner entrance. We purchase our 2 tickets at 50 R each. There are again 2 lines. One is clearly only Indian, and the other has no one on line. We are ushered down the empty staircase and railing. I’m thinking, foreigners privilege, front of the queue. WRONG! The long line was for Hindus only. One can get into the inner sanctum only if you are Hindi. We had free reign of the outer part of the temple, which after reading the Michael Woods book was really kind of a let down.
The temple is famous for being dedicated to the goddess of the fish eyes. This is Shiva’s wife. She gave birth to two sons, Ganesh and Murugan. Since we didn’t take a camera inside, there are no photos. (Insert sad-faced emoji here). The tower on the left is the west tower and we don’t have pictures up closer because we had to leave our cameras back in the room.
It is the exterior of the temple that is the exciting part. Every exterior, and interior, surface is covered in bas relief statuary. All intricately carved and colored. It is hard to describe the enormity of that artistic job. There are 4 towers, and each one is over 100 feet tall with the south tower being the largest and most elaborate. The west tower alone has 1100 carved images (according to the guide books!) and they are colored in varying shades of blue, green, and pinkish. The carvings are of different versions of the god and goddess and their attendants.
We left the temple somewhere around 5:30 or 6 pm and headed back to the Chentoor and had a bite to eat. We were off to Kodai in the morning and had to check out early.
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