Madurai temple serves mutton biryani as prasadam at fest organized by hoteliers
Devanathan.Veerappan@timesgroup.com
Madurai:25.02.2019
Ever since Gurusamy Naidu from Vadakkampatti village near Kalligudi village in Madurai district started a successful hotel at Karaikudi in Sivaganga district in 1937, his villagers have been following suit and tasting success. Naidu was followed by his close friend Sundar Reddiar who established hotels at Kalligudi and Virudhunagar.
While many of the villagers have been turning hoteliers, they ensure two things — to offer tasty non-vegetarian food and name the hotel after their local deity Muniyandi. Today, there are more than 1,500 Muniyandi Vilas hotels in south India and a few have come up in other places too. So, what spurred these villagers to foray into the food business? Crop failure. The villagers who were facing a grim future in the fields looked for greener pastures and ventured into the hotel industry. “Our men used to work in the hotels run by their relatives. Once they learn the business, they go out to establish one themselves. Their relatives help them out to start the venture,” said S Rajaguru, who runs a hotel in Chennai. More than 500 hoteliers from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Puducherry apart from Tamil Nadu took part in a two-day temple festival of their deity which concluded at Vadakkampatti in Madurai on Saturday.
Although both Naidu and Reddiar communities jointly hosted the temple festival till 1970s, a dispute resulted in the two celebrating it separately. More than 8,000 people took part in the festival the highlight of which was the distribution of mutton biryani as prasadham on Saturday morning.
“The festival is the time to give back to the society. All hoteliers from the community contribute for the festival. For this purpose, we keep aside the money we get from the first customer every day,” said N P Ramasamy, who runs Rajavilas Hotel at Poonamallee, Chennai. He could not name his hotel after the local deity since his fellow villager already runs one by the same name there.
MOUTH WATERING
Devanathan.Veerappan@timesgroup.com
Madurai:25.02.2019
Ever since Gurusamy Naidu from Vadakkampatti village near Kalligudi village in Madurai district started a successful hotel at Karaikudi in Sivaganga district in 1937, his villagers have been following suit and tasting success. Naidu was followed by his close friend Sundar Reddiar who established hotels at Kalligudi and Virudhunagar.
While many of the villagers have been turning hoteliers, they ensure two things — to offer tasty non-vegetarian food and name the hotel after their local deity Muniyandi. Today, there are more than 1,500 Muniyandi Vilas hotels in south India and a few have come up in other places too. So, what spurred these villagers to foray into the food business? Crop failure. The villagers who were facing a grim future in the fields looked for greener pastures and ventured into the hotel industry. “Our men used to work in the hotels run by their relatives. Once they learn the business, they go out to establish one themselves. Their relatives help them out to start the venture,” said S Rajaguru, who runs a hotel in Chennai. More than 500 hoteliers from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Puducherry apart from Tamil Nadu took part in a two-day temple festival of their deity which concluded at Vadakkampatti in Madurai on Saturday.
Although both Naidu and Reddiar communities jointly hosted the temple festival till 1970s, a dispute resulted in the two celebrating it separately. More than 8,000 people took part in the festival the highlight of which was the distribution of mutton biryani as prasadham on Saturday morning.
“The festival is the time to give back to the society. All hoteliers from the community contribute for the festival. For this purpose, we keep aside the money we get from the first customer every day,” said N P Ramasamy, who runs Rajavilas Hotel at Poonamallee, Chennai. He could not name his hotel after the local deity since his fellow villager already runs one by the same name there.
MOUTH WATERING
No comments:
Post a Comment