
Tamil Nadu
The temple bells hadn't stopped ringing since dawn. Somewhere between the crush of devotees, the heady sweetness of jasmine garlands, and a steel tumbler of scalding filter coffee, Madurai had already gotten under my skin — and I'd only been there an hour. This is no ordinary Indian city. With a history stretching back more than two thousand years, Madurai is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth, a place where Tamil culture doesn't just survive but thrives with fierc...






