Memorable trip to அழகர் கோவில் and பழமுதிர்சோலை

I’ve been here at Madurai for the past 4 years for my education and I hadn’t visited அழகர் கோவில் and பழமுதிர்சோலை even once in this time. I vaguely remember visiting பழமுதிர்சோலை when I was a little kid. So I had it up there on my wishlist for quite a long time and yesterday Senthil had told me about his plan to go to the temple. I wasn’t ready for the German class and the test today and had decided to bunk the class to escape the test and a boring, long session. I didn’t have any plan to go to the temple though I had told Senthil that I’d try to come if I woke up on time. So when I got SMS from Senthil and when Prabhu came to my room to remind me, I suddenly thought for a moment and decided to go. We all had our breakfast and started for the temple at 9.30. About an hour and half later we were at the temple.

அழகர் கோவில்
அழகர் கோவில்

We visited the deities at the அழகர் கோவில் and then started our trekking towards the பழமுதிர்சோலை முருகன் கோவில், it was a long exhausting walk up the hill along rocky terrain and steep slope. My calf muscles were resisting my every step forward, but still with company and enthusiasm in my mind, we reached the temple after 45 minutes of trekking. The shrine was very small, too small to tell the truth, and we had a peaceful dharshan. When we were about to leave the temple, Senthil saw the அன்னதானம் மண்டபம் and suggested that we could have lunch there and we were lucky enough to be taking up the last few places available. The food was minimal and good and definitely more delicious and palatable than what is offered at hostel ( 😉 ). Then Senthil suggested going to the நூபுர கங்கை shrine that was a bit higher up the terrain from the temple. Once we started walking up, we realized how drastically steep the way up was and we had to use all the energy from the lunch to make our limbs labour ahead. Once we reached there we decided to take bath in the water and did so. It was so soothingly pleasant in the hot weather. We thoroughly enjoyed getting soaked in the water and started our trek down after drying ourselves a bit. The trek downwards was exerting in a different way due to the inverted slope. On the way down, we stopped near a tree which a had a board that read – ‘ஔவைக்கு சுட்ட பழம் வேண்டுமா, சுடாத பழம் வேண்டுமா என்று கேட்டு காட்சி தந்த இடம்’! We took photographs of ourselves standing beside the tree and then the tree itself and continued the trek downwards listening to the music playing on Prabhu’s mobile.

ஔவையிடம் சுட்ட பழம் வேண்டுமா சுடாத பழம் வேண்டுமா என்று முருகன் கேட்ட மரம்
ஔவையிடம் சுட்ட பழம் வேண்டுமா சுடாத பழம் வேண்டுமா என்று முருகன் கேட்ட நாவல் மரம்
Myself and Prabhu
Myself and Prabhu

We reached அழகர் கோவில் in about 40 minutes and returned to hostel by a long and tiresome bus journey. The entire trip, though tremendously exhausting, was worthy and memorable. For the rest of the snaps taken during the trip, click here

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