Meenakshi Temple

The Family - The Religion
Two pillars of Indian culture.
The Family - The Religion,
a hope and an example to the world.

Madurai 2005-02-13 oochappan ©®

Bharatha Natyam

Tamil Nadu is famous for their school of the Bharata Natyan in Chennai.
A classical Indian dance performed by the indicative rules of the Veeda's
telling its story as a worship to Deity.
Every year at Poongal (the harvest-celebration of the rice on 15 January )
there is a dance-festival at Mahabalipuram.
Welcome to Tamil Nadu

Mamallapuram 2004-03-08 oochappan ©®

Nirwana

A man sleeping on a bench in front of an art design of the MGR-fort meaning the bastion for the political party of Jaylalitha. MGR or his full name is M.G.Ramachandran was the founder of the ADMK-party. He ruled for 13 years over Tamil Nadu from 1974 to 1987 till he died. Now the banner is passed on to Jaylalitha, she was a formal wife of MGR.
MGR was the most famous actor in Tamil films in his time, a king of the film industry. It was there that he met formal film actress Jaylalita.
So this man has a peaceful dream

2006-02-03 oochappan ©®

Winnowing mothers

Mothers sitting in the full sun on the village square, winnowing the rice and keeping an eye on the children.

Madurai - Kodikulam 2007-03-15 oochappan ©®

The final steps

After a long and steep climb, sweating , finally the Muslim shrine dedicated to Alexander the Great, friend of Murugan, appearing on the last steps, exhausted she welcomes with admiration and relief the Mosque at dusk ... still a few steps to go.

Madurai - Tirupparangunram 2007-03-01 17:50 oochappan ©®

Torching - Madurai

After rincing the bleached cotton it is torched here still by hand,
after it will go to a chemical color bath,
labour cost is still low .

Madurai - Sellur 2005-03-18 oochappan ©®

Karuppu alagana

So black this man was and like they had a song on the hitparade "Black is beautiful" same as the title of this shot, I wanted to show him, a funny man joking around.

Madurai - countryside 2005-03-12 oochappan ©®

Like a statue

One for the museum of Madame Tussauds like he was sitting there as a statue.
I was surprised about the gloomy colors here caused by the fine humidity haze settled on my lens like a kind of filter .
And humid it was here in this factory where they dye and bleach tissues. The man was sitting on some examples.

Madurai - Sellur 2005-03-17 oochappan ©®

Shri Sarasvathi

And this old lady didn't put her basket filled with fruits, not for one second down, she galantly moved from shrine to shrine to pray for her daughter exams maybe as this God Shri Sarasvathi with her veena is known as the God of education .
Religion and family-bound are still two very strong preserved elements in Indian socio-culture lost in the rich world.
A scene from a small temple in a poor area compound at the heart of Madurai.
A compound is an area given by the goverment for poor people where traffic can't enter, so the children are safe to play on the small streats.

Madurai - Pechiamman Temple 2005-02-17 oochappan ©®

The girlfriend from next door ...

Certainly they aggreed already on one thing : the colortone of their sari.
Biking around the country side, I took a break for a tea and walking to the stall I passed these two young women having fun together and that's dangerous especially since I had my camera in my hand ... they enjoyed seeing themself on the LCD. People here are more at ease and always open for a chat.
In the corner you just can see a red mask, used to protect the house from demons and the left woman is certainly married ....

Madurai 2006-02-05 oochappan ©®

Arrissi

Winnowing the rice (arrissi in Tamil).
The grains and husk formed a dusty curtain while she held the winnow elegantly. Nothing get lost, again and again the rice was cleaned out by the wind.
A common scene of the country-side with Pongal.
She asked to drink a tea, you must get thirsty with this dusty work in full sun.
Some dishes made with rice:
- idly (steamed rice cakes),
- dosai (a pancake made from a batter of rice),
- pongal (a mxed mash of rice and lentils boiled together and seasoned with ghee, cashew nuts, pepper and cummin seed)
With breakfast Idly is served and Lunch or meals consist of cooked rice served with an array of vegetable dishes, sambar, chutneys, rasam and curd.
Most Tamils eat only vegatable rice dishes in the morning, at noon and in the evening ....

Madurai 2005-02-28 15:50 oochappan ©®

Back to school

Still a long way to go after lunch at noon, those two boys coming from home back to school.
I wouldn't mind to do this road again and again passing this very old Banyan tree every day.
How many of you or your children had this chance to walk along such a beautiful road through the country side to go to school ?

Madurai 2006-02-06 14:15 oochappan ©®

Nadpu

Nadpu or friendship.
Out of nostalgie for all the friendship in Tamil Nadu, I like to show you Mariapan and Esamuthu, updating themself with the latest news, side by side. I showed them the shot and asked their name saying 'the world will be watching both of you' and they liked it.
Tamil Nadu, the place where people are so dear to me that I prefer to give them all priority, composition or technique stays functional to focus them.

Madurai 2005-02-02 oochappan ©®

The Gold of Tamil Nadu

After the harvest the hay is put on the street threshed by traffic like lorries and straw is separated from the seeds, separately these straw is still waned out to separate it from the husk and then the crop dries in the hot sun turned over like you see here taken just before noon.
Now the curious thing, this crop is sold to companies to be pealed and the farmer buy back the pealed rice. Curious as the unpeeled rice is so much more nourishing and everybody still prefers the pealed rice. The government started some actions to dispatch some kind of sweet for children containing a lot of minerals that they lack with the pealed rice. We in the West we pay a lot more for unpeeled rice in specialized shops.

Madurai 2005-02-28 oochappan ©®

Turning the bullocks

Levelling the mud after they plough, before planting the young rice-plants.
A risky attempt to get near, the mud sucks itself on your sandals while it stays slippery, lucky one of the workmen helped me out.

Madurai - Thathakavundanpatti 2007-12-12 oochappan ©®

Owl

As you were thinking that only Hindu's are visiting a temple .... wrong !
This owl is living there, in the wall of the Sakarathaalvar temple on the country-side near the Elephant-Rock of Madurai.

Madurai - Thirumogur 2005-02-28 oochappan ©®

She will fix it !

On a corner of a street I saw her soldering this sieve, turning the van connected with a pipe to this rusty pot to heat up the fire ... she was preparing the soldering iron.
Yes I had the same feeling as you probably ..... who needs men ?

Madurai 2005-03-07 oochappan ©®

Dancing with wolves

Taming the bull, to stay on you must follow the the high jumping up of the bull.
The next day,
two young man died in Alanganallur (Madurai) as they were picked up by the horns of the bull.

Madurai - Palamedu 2005-01-15 oochappan ©®

... and many more