Deepam euphoria winds down, Tiruvannamalai returns to normalcy
“With the food in such centres being good, we did not find it necessary to eat at any hotel,” said Rajkumar (40) from Chennai.
TIRUVANNAMALAI: With most of the crowds having left the temple town after the annual Deepam festival on Sunday, the euphoria is slowly winding down in Tiruvannamalai town with the officials returning back to their everyday tasks.
Meanwhile, restaurants that were open on all the festival days, said business was dull due to the anna dhanam on all road sides, especially on the 14-kilometre girivalam path.
“With the food in such centres being good, we did not find it necessary to eat at any hotel,” said Rajkumar (40) from Chennai.
Bus travel from Vellore to Tiruvannamalai, which is usually a two-hour trip, consumed nearly six hours during the festival due to the heavy traffic and bottlenecks caused by barricades put up in almost all streets.
“Vehicles were forced to a crawl right from Polur, 32 kilometres from Tiruvannamalai,” a passenger said and added that getting into a Vellore-bound bus from the Easaiyam ground was a herculean task due to traffic jams.
Officials on the other hand wondered what would happen next year if the crowd, which was estimated at 40 lakh increases further. “I do not know if the infrastructure of the town will be able to withstand it despite our attempts to provide basic amenities during the ten days,” an official said seeking anonymity.