ABODE OF THE GODDESS

Steeped in legend and jasmine aroma, Madurai draws the bulk of its tourists with ornate temples. But DEVANSHI MODY discovers that the city holds a unique allure for each of her family members.

- DEVANSHI MODY

IT BEGAN A DECADE AGO, our family’s love affair with Madurai. It was January 2011. My brother, Samir, and I had relocated to Chennai from the UK and wanted to discover Tamil Nadu. Madurai was foremost recommended to us. Taking mum along, we embarked. An eight-hour journey became 14 hours because the driver stopped for an inordinate dinner break and got waylaid after one too many vadais. The journey seemed endless. Then, it ended. At 2 am, with imprecations heaped on the driver and our resolve never to return to Madurai. Little did we realise that Madurai’s presiding deity, the beauteous Goddess Meenakshi, wields the might of destiny in her enigmatic smile. Or that there’s a story in every pillar of Madurai’s temples and every quivering petal of its jasmines that would keep luring us back.

Our first glimpse of Madurai was unforgettable. Hawkers selling onions, people standing around eating street food—at 2 am! Trudging through labyrinthine streets we reached our hotel, Heritage Madurai, a creation by legendary architect Geoffrey Bawa. It was nearing 3 am. But the staff received us as if we were divinity. Even our drooping eyes appreciated quintessential Bawa manifested in clean lines, spare interiors, vast open spaces, pillared pavillions, and stretches of sleek garden encrusted with a monumental sprawl of a pool replicating a temple tank. We would bring in the New Year at this retreat again and again. As on our latest visit. Now Anu Abraham (aka Abi), a brisk young Malayali, runs the hotel ensconced in acres of landscaped gardens swooning under an ancient banyan tree. If we imagined that post-COVID we’d be spared the combat for our preferred villa, we discover all of South India fiercely competing for its conquest.