Sirumalai - a Sweet Stay .

Cottage 

Tiny lake in the estate 

Our Dindigul and Sirumalai trip ..a memorable and enjoyable trip with college friends  . Carried many lovely moments full of laughter and love.

Starting with our college friends Nisha & Riyaz' newly built house , for which we were invited for the house warming ceremony, it was a splendid house with 3 floors. The Ground floor is for parking , which served as a temporary dining hall for the house warming function. First floor and second floor consist of 2 houses each floor , total 4 houses meant for rental purpose. 

Third floor is where they have constructed for themselves , to be able to stay whenever they come to Dindugul from U.S. Very poshly built and exclusive interiors especially attractive lightings , a very spacious kitchen fully equipped with modern electronic gadgets , leather sofa sets and sturdy dining table etc. One more notable attractive feature is the custom made swing ( oonjal ) made out of  teak wood . We all loved sitting on it and that became the favourite  photo spot for us. Another is on the sofa in the hall, the hall could easily accommodate all our friends group to be captured in a single pic .

Riyaz and Nisha had booked for us rooms in 2. luxury hotels, which we all enjoyed the stay for a night .

The food was very good ,  especially the biryanis and NV delicacies . Sure all would have loved it.

Nisha seemed to have taken all the pressure / responsibility on herself  and was seen running around rather climbing up and down the house , attending the guests  , managing the things . .Riyaz  comparatively was found cool. Their smart looking sons Irfan and Imran loved their new house it seemed . Nisha's daughter and her family could not make it to the fucntion due to her work. She is a medical practitioner and has 2 kids and resides in U.S .

Most of our friends reached Dindugul by night itself and had the dinner in their house. The next day  morning , Sri had arranged for a temple tour for us around the town.He is the driving force and the way he managed to pull the people in time , giving ears to their demands without any hesitation, taking care of all  is something amazing. He definitely is a team player and a great team lead , no doubt.This we could see in our college  group activities and in this trip too Hats off to Sri !!

Srikanth

As scheduled , we all got ready by 7.30 am after having the complimentary breakfast in the hotel ,  we started in the TT van and a car ( RHM's ) and we visited the nearby famous temples ...

The first one was Thadikombu Soundararaja Perumal temple ,Perumal in reclining posture and here we found Swarna Akarsha Bairavar which is unusual in a Vishnu temple.We were lucky enough to have the darshan of Mahalakshmi and Andal while the abishekam was being performed.

Otha swamy Athishtanam

Our next visit  was Otha swamy Adhishtanam , where the samadhi of the great saint Otha Swamy is located. We found water oozing out from a huge rock, which got collected in a pond and considered as sacred. The pujas are performed for the deitykept  underneath the rock and a suranga pathai also seen , which is believed to connect Pazhani . Ramana Maharishi got blessings from Otha Swamy before he moved to Thiruvanamalai , as said by a sage , who made us to sit in a group .He recited the story of Otha swamy with devotion.

Our friends sat underneath the huge rock in a meditative pose and that became a photo shooting spot.

We also visited Kottai Mariamman temple , a huge temple .

When we were about to return to the function , some showed deep inclination to visit the Padala Chembu Murugan temple . Sri was patient enough to redirect the route to Murugan temple , many Aiyappa swamy devotees had  flooded the temple. The temple is  unique where Murugan deity is placed 16 ft  underground . And it's mentioned in noticeboards ,we need to maintain total silence while taking darshan else our prayers will not be fulfilled. And the military personnel are given special respects here , the name boards says so ..

Nisha Riyaz house

After our temple visits , finally we reached Nisha Riyaz' function after vacating our hotel rooms , right in time . We could see many other friends who came exclusively for the function and did not accompany us to Sirumalai trip like Kasthuri, Malathi, Sivashankaran, Saroja ,Sivagamy ,Jay and his wife etc.

We went through  the house ,rather up and down the apartment  , had lot of photo shoots in various places . We had nice food followed by ice cream. When we left , Nisha was moved to tears . They said they would return back to U.S by Dec 31 .

Our Sirumalai trip started  soon after our grand lunch in TT van and few cars ( cars of Kadher Meeran, Ranihema , SDS & Saleem ) , the headcount around 25 . On the way Sri picked up the famous Jalebis for all of us , Some tasted on the van itself. And Malathi had prepared home made Murukku and Thattu vadai and packed for all of us with love.We relished them both the days in Sirumalai.

Sirumalai is just 25 kms from Dindugul . Some 18  hairpin bends to reach the tiny hill . We can see the temperature falling down drastically  while we climbed and we started to feel.the chillness immediately.The greeneries around pleasantly surprised us, felt like mini Kodaikanal .

The resort which Sri has  booked was Coffee  County resort. A really beautiful one . Thanks to Thulasi for suggesting this resort and helped booking through her known contacts .The room allocation was already pre planned  . The list was made and remade multiple times due to many dynamic inclusions and cancellations . Thanks to the patience of Madhu ,who worked as an intermediary between the friends and finalised the list , which helped us to check in with ease . Years back , Amudha used to take up the responsibility in connecting with the friends and facilitate all the  arrangements .Sri already had collected the amount and had made the pre booking for the stay and food. Some of our friends  Jeeva, Raji, Vanaja, Jayasudha , MP , Saraa could not make it to the trip as planned due to various reasons .We missed them as they had.

As we entered the resort , the pleasant cool weather and the greenery around astonished us . Instantaneously it changed our mood to a relaxed state  . We moved into our rooms and got a quick refresh and came to the dining area for coffee /tea. 

Sri took the lead and was managing everything , giving orders/ instructions  , changed the menu , planning the activities etc. 

We went for a short trek in the coffee estate after our coffee , where we found a small lake, horse stable, bisons  grazing the greens etc . Tree houses , built on the tree attracted us. We all climbed and took the pictures. While trekking we got time to talk with each other . We got to see the coffee plantations , pepper creepers , plantains , rare medicinal plants like Kandang kathiri etc..

 After returning , we came and sat in the dining area while the dinner was getting ready . Someone  asked Mythili to sing a song. She  as usual sang with her sweet voice and impressed us.  And slowly Sivaraman joined her . And Kaamee / Saleem also sang . Narasimhan also joined the bandwagon. We all enjoyed the song time nicely  by tapping to the tunes and singing along . It was a pleasant surprise to see their singing talent . Kamee & Saleem sang the song " Pon onru kanden, Pen angu illai  " superbly. 

We also started to play the  Pattukku Pattu game. Since we  were already sitting in 2 groups opposite each other across the wooden dining table , we easily formed 2 groups and started the game.We enjoyed with lots of fun and laughter. Old songs and 90 s songs only came to our mind . Mythili , Kaamee , Sivaram and others in one side. Sri, Narasimhan , Asha, Tulsi among others on the other side . They were  the major contributors to songs.We all enjoyed thoroughly.

Soon the dinner got ready and placed for serving  . The chillness also  got increased .And there was drizzling too. we picked up our plates .Dosas, Chapathi , NV side dishes and veg curries etc.

After dinner , they  played a movie in the open space , which we asked them to stop as it was disturbing our game activities.

The resort people prepared a camp fire as we had earlier demanded and Sri had already discussed with the resort team to keep it ready beforehand .

We all sat around the campfire in chairs .Ranihema's son , Navin and SDS' son , SriVatsan also had joined us for the trip.Next day morning Saleem son and elder son of SDS also joined.

The campfire gave us the required warmth and set the atmosphere right  for us to play some games. We played Dumb charades , the boys group and girls group , one person in the group  had to enact according to the movie name suggested by the other group and the movie name will have to be identified by other people in the group..Almost all participated actively  in the game ..once again a  lot of fun and laughter .Our mind was totally in the present moment . 

Sri Vatsan when asked to give one minute talk , he listed out all the accidents he came across in his life. 

We had a nice debate with Navin , as regards to the present generation's thought process on marriage and other related topics.

SDS also shared about his experience in  Manipur ( I think so ,) how marriages happen there .Sri started to doze off , as he is an early sleeper. 

We all got back to our respective  cottages and our chats and stories continued there till midnight.

The climate was very chill , the real feel of a hill station . Soon the deep sleep engulfed all of us.Sri already had announced the next day's program . 6.30 am for yoga session , 7.30 am trekking .

We all assembled in the hall at 6.30 am the next morning with our bedsheets/towels turned yoga mats. We did some simple warm up yoga sessions followed by a short meditation and a mini  dance yoga  too.Sivaram being a professional yoga trainer and therapist gave chance to me to take the session.

After the yoga session we had our coffee and tea. Coffee from the same estate  , freshly brewed was served ..

Then we started the morning trek in a different path ,towards the main road. There were leeches on the path. Kaamee's wife got bitten by a leech on her foot. And the workers passing by helped her by giving the first aid with dettol. They carry it regularly it appeared. .

We chatted all along  the way ,discussed on Leech therapy ,  enjoying the coffee estate , Pepper creepers and other plantations 

and returned back .We captured some scenic spots , the tall trees, the misty clouds , the coffee plants etc. Definitely a change for us , out from the normal city daily routine. The company of our college  friends is something we all cherished.  Anu asked Sri to climb the metal  staircase and  captured a pic, teasing him  "Now Sri has become old , using staircase to climb the tree " The previous day he was seen climbing a tree to get a pic . And Mythili posed to hit him with a stick.

The breakfast was ready by the time we returned from trekking , Idlies , Hot pooris, omelettes with sambar, chutney , kurma etc. We chatted for some more time..enjoyed listening to Mythili's songs . We had lot of fun and laughter discussing on Ji's encrypted messages and their interpretations. 

Following that we had refreshing hot water bath ..our friends started leaving ..SDS with his 2 sons , Pons ,Saleem and his son all left early. Others had a photo shoot in the scenic location. Sri shot the couple's pictures. Surya became the model . 

Finally we had the lunch , both veg and Non veg , coconut rice, Bottle gourd fry etc.The cook was asked to tell the recipes by our friends. The food serving people were very friendly and kind. .And we bid good bye to Sirumalai and carried lots of sweet memories to be cherished for ever. On the way we stopped to pick up the famous Sirumalai bananas to carry home along with our memories.

Pons aptly described this trip as SSS ..short and sweet stay @ Sirumalai.

Signing off Sirumalai..