My First Experience of Original Tirunelveli Halwa

Vanakkam Nanbargalay....

I hope all are fine and busy with their own routines. Summer is at its peak every where in particular at Chennai. I some how managed to visit during the peak Summer so called as 'Agni Natchathiram' (not the tamil movie..ok??) during May 2010. As a result we got nicely fried in the non-stop heat of the summer through out our trip. Just to cool us, before our departure we were able to experience the heavy rain fall in the name of cyclone 'Laila'. That was really so nice to enjoy the thunder and the heavy rain in chennai that too during May month..

We also managed to visit so many places during our trip to Chennai. I would like to share my experience of one of our trip, that is Tirunelveli. The main agenda of our tirunelveli trip was to visit a family temple near a place called seranmahadevi (now they call it as seranmadevi..). We had a pleasant & comfortable train travel from Chennai to Tirunelveli. We have planned and arranged the things very well before our travel to tirunelveli. So every thing went on well during our entire travel.

We visited few tourist spots like Famous water Falls 'Kuttralam', 'Pabanasam', 'Agasthiyar Falls' apart from en route temples like Nellaippar, Kailasanathar etc., To our disappointment there was very little water falls in kuttralam. But we thoroughly enjoyed a detailed bath in agasthiyar falls. We were told that this agasthiyar falls has abundant water through out 365 days. I cant put in words of the joy we had in this falls.. Amazing.. When ever some one visit tirunelveli never miss to have a shower in this falls.

The high light of the entire tirunelveli trip consists of two things. One is the visit to the family temple 'Kallur' Sivan Temple which is on the banks of the river tamira barani. Excellent temple to visit. The idol of shiva is a 'swayambu' (Swayambu = originated of its own.. not man made idol..) and this temple is just 1500 years old. Great sculputres and fantastic divinity through out the temple. We were told by the priest that this particular shiva temple is second in number in the Nava Kailsam (Nine shiva temples) and also this is the one and only temple where Goddess Parvathi resides on the right side of Lord Shiva in the temple. This is the very first time I am visiting this temple and thoroughly felt the divinity of the place. Memorable experience.

The second high light was the famous tirunelvi halwa which is sold in the popular so called 'Iruttu Kadai' (Iruttu Kadai = Dark Shop; less lighting..!!) This shop is located just in front of the famous nellaippar temple. We found more crowd in front of the shop than the temple. So we also joined in the Jyothi and became one among the crowd. It seems this shops opens only in the evening at around 6.15 and closes exactly at 7.45 likely. We bought smaller quantity of halwa and tasted at the same time. Wonderful taste. What a moment was that.. Original Tirunelveli Halwa... that too in front of the shop which is the authenticated seller of this famous halwa and also we were served hot halwas in plantain leaf... Then we filled our bags with sufficient quantity for our chennai consumption as well as distribution for our relatives and friends..

So far I was very nicely given 'HALWA' (bulb!!) by so many people... This is the very first time I myself got the original halwa of my own..!! I am sure many of you might have got nice halwa (bulbs!!) from several of your friends etc.,!!

Apart from this two high lights there were several nice experience during our tirunelveli trip. I shall try to share it with you in the future posts..

vartaa....