Southern Spice - Part ONE

My uncle(dad's younger bro) had come from the US a couple of weeks back to attend one of his conferences here.He got me a Canon Powershot A520, 4.0 MP digital camera.Its really a beauty with so many features.I still haven't even gone through all of them.
He was then free the whole of last week and dad planned for a south india tour.And so, I took the whole week off from work.
Armed with the Powershot,the eight of us left for Trichy the previous saturday by Tanjavur express.It was quite some time now that I had travelled in a train, and was pretty happy about it.For me,train is the best mode of transport, as I find bus travel too boring and the pressure variations in the aircraft a pain in the ears.

DAY-1
We reached Trichy early morning the next day at around 4.30.A scorpio (arranged from here itself) was waiting in the station that took us to our lodge.A pretty decent one.Thanks to "Baaz", there was a faint drizzle and we were quite scared, if the rain would ruin our grand plans.
After refreshing and a moderate breakfast ,we left for Srirangam in a qualis that we managed to book in Trichy.On the way,we also visited a ganesha temple by name "Uchhi-pilliar".Pilliar in tamil refers to lord ganesha.The temple was at an elevation and one could see the whole of Trichy town from there.A worthwhile scene.
I had been to Srirangam around 10 years back and had vague memories about it.After worshipping to a dozen deities there,we left Srirangam at around 1.00 in the afternoon.It was already lunch time and so we finished our lunch there itself.The best part about Tamil Nadu, apart from the grandiose temples, is the amazing food that you get there.And if you are hungry on top of that, its pure bliss.

Our next stop was Madurai.It seemed like our prayers must have pleased the gods,for Baaz spared us of its fury and took its course towards nothern Tamil Nadu and AP.We had a smooth ride throughout the 3 hour journey except that when we had almost reached madurai,one of the tyres got punctured.The fact that it happened right in front of a puncture repairing shop suggested more than just a coincidence.We had tea at a roadside shop as the driver got the tyre repaired.Resuming our journey, we reached Madurai at around 5.30 in the evening.

The Meenakshi temple there is simply outstanding in terms of its gopurams.No temple,I have ever seen, has such magnificient gopurams.I was amazed the last time I saw them and that continued even this time around.
It,being a sunday there was a quite a crowd and we had to wait almost an hour before we could have our darshan.While in the queue,my uncle asked me an interesting question which my cousin had asked him.

Does Hinduism support evolution (as proposed by Darwin) ?
That basically translated, as to what was Hinduism's idea of creation of the universe.Though he seemed to suggest that it did,I have my own doubts regarding that.

After some photo sessions at the temple we retired to our lodge after another lipsmacking round of dinner.That was pretty much about how DAY-1 was spent.
Rest of the trip in a subsequent post.