KANJIVARAM SILKS AND A CALM FLIGHT TO HYDERABAD

I have visited Kanjivaram earlier and done the rounds of temples, but typically one rushes through the worship, ready to visit another god. It really does not matter if it is Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu. I had never bought any saris though. I don't wear this all-cover-beautiful apparel, but love to watch friends drape them and buy them. And so there we were, the eight ladies in this town of magical weaves, colourful and silken.  We had the much deserved hot cup of coffee, since the road from Tiruvanmala to Kanjivaram does not have any facilities or a decent tea shop. A single road which got crowded as we approached this town, with little villages on either side and paddy fields abounding.

We set out to see the three major temples of this town including the Varadaraja Perumal temple, where we touched the golden lizard and for some reason felt very happy. There are 48 steep steps from the bottom to the top where the Lord sits in all his glory. From here we went to the Ekambareswar temple. And there was some puja happening and so we got to see him from up front and quick. We were quite tired by then and so we  left the visit to Kamakshi Amman temple for the next day. We got a great puliyodarai prasadam.

It gives me goose bumps just thinking of these temples and for how long they have stood in this land. In fact as you drive down this place from shop to shop, you see many more smaller temples, which I am sure have stood the test of time and are equally old and timeless.

While I love my temples, this time around the saris take over. The lure of the weave is as ancient as the temples and the colours enchanting. The charm about sari shopping in Kanjivaram is that you can still see the original charm in one of those old shops, with classic colour combinations and simple designs. Not what you find these days in the name of Kanjivaram saris, vague colour combinations (in the name of modern ideas) and busy activity throughout the sari. They will add glass pieces and tassles and fill the whole sari with some design. But there are people who still buy that at a high price.

But these ladies I was with had style. They bought a lot of saris and kept citing occasions for each of them. They would pick the sari, drape it across one shoulder and after some thought would ask others what they thought of it. And then without checking the price tag, just bought it. We bought lots of saris at one shop. But I must say the guys selling the saris to us were quite unimpressed and luckily they did not yawn in our faces.

Then we went to a cotton weave shop. Fabulous weaves, super colours and we bought lots of saris here too. We chatted, someone looked at something off the shelf, we all liked it. We bought a lot of saris here too.

Then we had a super buffet lunch and left at 3 pm for a 9.20 flight. We were told huge traffic snarls would happen and it would take a minimum of three to four hours for us to drive the innocent 70 and odd kms. And of course that excited me no end and I herded everyone into the cars. My other thought on this matter is that if there are decent airports then we should spend more time in them. Before I get killed for that, I rush to say that I do not mind spending time at airports. And incidentally we spent six whole hours at the RGIA on our trip to Pondicherry, just the other day.

Any way we reached Chennai at 4.15 pm and with everyone hassled about this, we drove into The Trident and ordered a coffee for all. We took our time, giggled into it and so on and finally reached the airport. They are back to cooking the Maggie Noodles and serving it in a dish, instead of giving it to you in the plastic container. Yummy and our flight was delayed.

It was a fairly steady landing, though the pilot kept telling us that it was poor weather and that the flight would be turbulent. But it was safe landings. And now all of us are eagerly waiting for our consignments to arrive for obviously we asked the Kanjivaram chaps to courier it to us.