we were out of the temple by 9 or 9.30 ,the darshan having taken no more than half an hour or so and from then on we seemed to have been literally on roads.first we ambled about the streets around the shrine,took the launch trip to the vivekananda rock, as even kids decided they were not feeling like having breakfast.there we went into the grand dhyanamandiram,went to the little temple and saw the footprints of devi ,where she was said to have done her penance,spent some time at the well stacked book stores,run by ramakrishna mission, perused over the literature,and in a fit of parental concern for the urgent need of spiritual instruction for the tomorrow"s citizens, bought some for the kids and some for ourselves too and felt quite virtuous over the whole thing and for having discharged our dharmic duties.

then for sometime we enjoyed viewing the vast sea around us, had a hot discussion as we tried to guess which water belonged to which sea, then finally settled the issue once for all,...the muddy waters to the left, belonged to the bay no doubt it being east,the slightly blue waters(they were blue only from a distance) to the front was the ocean,the green tinged ones on the right could only be the arabian.
then we realised we were hungry after all, headed for the jetty which harboured the launch,and with a bit of surreptious support of expert opinion from, alekhya ,skipped the thiruvalluvar statue ,went back shore, seeking urgent satisfaction of the inner man(or woman...in deference to the feminists).
at the restaurants we noted with amusement how our food preferences seemed to vary from person to person. .srinivas and prasanna always went for idlis or puris, anasuya seemed to have cultivated a taste for pongal,alekhya oscillated between dosais and puris,my husband as always was very loyal to his idlis...as appetizers ofcource.later he loved to experiment with local specialities......the two kids and me(on par with them)never ate anything but dosais,.... sada, onion or masala....we never differentiated and religiously ate them day in and day out with such unshaken commitment.


kanyakumari was a bit of a let down as far as culianary standards go, i regret to say, though we only had our breakfast there.looking back on our trip, i must say, the five star status should be accorded to the modest eating house at aruppukottai( unfortunately i could not remember it"s name)not just for the food.,while it was wholesome....the hospitality and the concern the simple lungi clad servers showed us easily made it win hands down.


later we strolled along the streets of kanyakumari, leisurely inspecting the various stalls selling oyster shells,and artefacts made out of sea-junk.ofcource the girls splurged on the trinkets, ...ear rings, hangings, beads..handbags, mirrors,gifts to carry back home.....all the while knowing perfectly well they could not be of much use afterwards .then they announced they were tired and went back to the hotel, while i and prasanna peacefully settled down to some serious shopping .i.e. that meant ofcource ...saris..we looked at some, compared the prices and found them not much different from back home,did some spirited bargaining, finally prasanna went for a handloom one, while i bought an off white kerala type sari ,as srinivas and my huband waited in the back ground with sour faces with a long suffering look about them.


back at the hotel, we did some quick reshuffling of our plans, in consultation with sundaram ofcource.he wanted to take us to suchindram,he said,with an injured look,....but we could not do both suchindram and thiruchendur if we wanted to be back at madurai by atleast 10 in the night.seemed like sundaram did not approve of our frivolous shopping expeditions.so we regretfully dropped suchindram....we were never keen on it anyway...and to thiru chendur,now , we must head for.