The lovely mail received from Anu after her trip to Tiruppur
( Published with special permission from Anu)

Dear All,

Writing a mail here after very very very long
time. Just keep reading mails here and get all the
information. Anyways, appa will consolidate and let
the group know what is happening, so never took the
trouble of writing in :).

Now the last weekend was simply superb. However
appa tries to explain it, it wll just not make up to
the royal experience we had at tirupur and the
comfortable trip to palani. Let me start from the
beginning.

We left as scheduled on Friday evening by the 5.15
train to tiruppur. The scheduled time of arrival was
11.30 in the night. But thanks to a goods train that
had derailed near Salem, we reached Salem only around
1.00. Athai and I were in touch thro mobiles. Finally
the train reached Tiruppur at 3.00 in the morning. We
did catch up some sleep in the train but athai and
athimber were stranded in the station for more than 2
hours :(

Athai had brought Maaza,water to the station and it
was nice to have mango juice after the tiring and long
train trip.We had a cool(A/C) Car waiting for us
outside which just took us home. After quick exchanges
of pleasantaries and a glass of warm milk we hit the
bed.

After the refreshing sleep we woke up in the morning
to have a great spread of idly,dosa,chutney,sambar and
sweets and fruits of all varities. We finished our
elaborate breakfast at 10.30 with mosambhi juice. Off
we went to palani in the same cool car. All along the
way we were recollecting all those days when we(arjun
and I) used to visit tirupur during the summer
vacation. The dramas, fights, songs, movie (Aboorva
Sahodharargal in Srinivasa), Varavu ettana selavu
pathana in Shanti Theatre, Playing cricket in front of
the house, going for walks, running around the house
and what not.

We had latest tamil hits MP3 songs as background for
all the conversation we were having. We were updating
karthik with all we used to do and were hearing
stories about his school vacation. We reached palani
around 12.30 -1.00 and it was very hot there. We
realised the heat only when we stepped out in the hot
sun barefoot.

The trip up was in the winch. Again recollection of
old times :). There was lot of construction work going
on in palani due to the kumbhabhishekam and we were
not able to see the moolavar. However the shakthi of
the god was placed in a different place along with the
urchavar and we had good darshan of the same. We
returned back in the rope car. Lunch in palani was
nice and we were on our way back with songs and caught
some sleep in the car.

After reaching tirupur athai again went on a
feeding spree and we had murukku,fruits and coffee.
After taking rest for a while, we left with athimber
to visit the tirupur-tirupathi and guruvayurappan
koil. Tirupur-tirupathi , a temple which i strictly
recommend not to be missed at any cost. A nice temple,
well maintained and the god an exact replica of the
lord at tirupathi. Guruvayurappan temple also had life
size statues of all the 10 avatars of vishnu. Another
must see temple.

Then it was shopping time. We went to a T-Shirt
shop and picked up as many as we could from the
variety of T-shirts that were there for display. Later
came home for some awesome chapathis and Daal. Long
day so I went to bed early. Karthik , athai and
athimber were chatting for a while, i think :).

Next day had a late start with hot Aapams and
kichadi with side dishes. Started to wonder if the
weight scales at home would work after we get back.
Visited karthik's friends' parents at tirupur. I think
it is with tirupureans to over feed people. Had some
puri's there and came back home. Just forgot before
visiting them went to the temple in front of our house
and athimber was our pujari for the day.

Back at home, we browsed through old photos and
identification parade was going on. With the heavy
heart we also did some packing. Then was the grand
finale , the lunch. Started off with payasam, thayir
pachadi, cabbage poriyal, kootu,vada, chips, banana,
pomogranete, jangiri, appalam, paruppu, sambhar,
rasam,thayir, vadu manga and ofcourse lots of rice.
We were just hoping to take a nap after that tasty
feast but it was already time to leave.

Again were escorted by Athai and Athimber to the
station this time in a bigger cool vehicle. We were
just hoping we would go an another trip like the
previous day and return back in the evening but we
reached the railway station on time to get the train.

Am i forgetting something, yes before the grand
finale he had another important event the katcheri. We
had athimber's morsing(my spelling is definetely
wrong)and songs from athimber,karthik and myself.
Athai had the laugh of her life :). Forget our songs
but karthik enjoyed athimber playing the instrument.

Like this our trip came to an end with the train
coming on time :(. Our royal vacation came to an end.
This would definetely be the most memorable and
enjoyable trip till i guess we make our next trip
there :).

Thanks a lot Athai and Athimber