Kanyakumari. This is the southernmost point on the Indian subcontinent. The Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal all meet here. You can stand at the very end and look to your left and see Punjab and Pakistan, looking to your right is the Bay of Bengal and Bangladesh/Myanmar. It is insanely touristy, thousands of tourists (almost all Indian) come here every day and visit the temples and markets. The giant statue in the sea is of the Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar, it honors the poets’ 133 chapter work Thirukural by being exactly 133 feet high. The Pink structure is a Mahatma Ghandi memorial, his ashes are kept inside.

A couple of portraits

Madurai. The Sri Meenakshi Temple is located in the center of the city and attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims/visitors daily. The current temple dates back to 1560, but there has been a temple at this location for the last 2,000 years. The outside of the temple is full of shops, selling textiles (very important to this region, it was here that Mahatma Ghandi decided to only wear Khadi, homespun cotton cloth), temple offerings, household goods, metalworks, etc. The temples in South India have very nicely decorated gopurams, entrance towers. They are a distinct feature of Dravidian architecture, and almost all temples in Tamil Nadu that I visited had this kind of a design.

In many places in India food used to be served on banana leaves like in the photo. Often when you stop and get a hot cup of chai or a lassi from a vendor it would/does come in a clay cup. After eating/drinking most people just throw the plate/cup away. Unfortunately more and more plastic and paper cups/plates are used, but people in general have been used to just throwing everything on the ground when they are done. They continue to do so with plastic which contributes to the massive amounts of thrash that is very visible throughout India.

Kids near the Sri Meenakshi temple

People bathing and washing their clothes in the Vaigai river

Tiruchchirappalli (Trichy)

Man selling offerings to the gods at the Rock Fort Temple

Top of the Rock Fort Temple

Inside of the Lourdes Church, modeled after its namesake in France

Closeup of a 7 story high gopuram of the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple.

Elephant giving a blessing to the child at the same temple. I watched the elephant for a few minutes, people would give a couple of rupees as coins to the elephant, who would take them with her nose, bless the person by touching them on the head, and then give the money to her handler who is sitting next to her. She was very efficient, the whole process took anywhere from 3 to 5 seconds!

Various other photos of the Sri Ranganathaswamy temple

People in the market outside of the temple

I have not had the time to go through the photos from Pondicherry or Chennai at the time when I did this, I will post them soon