Palani Murugan Temple is one of the most famous Murugan temples in India. It is located in the township of Palani, 100 km southeast of Coimbatore and a similar distance northwest of Madurai, and near the famous hill station, Kodaikanal.
It is one of the major Arupadaiveedu of Lord Muruga. The other Arupadiveedus are Thiruchendur Murugan Temple (100 km south-west of Madurai), Swamimalai Murugan Temple (150 km east of Madurai), Thiruthani Murugan Temple (50 km from Chennai), Pazhamudircholai (10 km north of Madurai) and Tirupparamkunram Murugan Temple (10 km south of Madurai).

As per the Hindu mythology, Sage Narada once visited the divine court of Lord Shiva at Mount Kailash. Lord Shiva was with his consort, Goddess Shakti, and their two children, Lord Ganesha and Lord Subrahmanya. Sage Narada gave Lord Shiva a fruit and told him that it was a special one, the fruit of wisdom (Jnana-Pazham).
Lord Shiva wanted his children to have the fruit of wisdom. However, when he offered it to them to be shared between the two sons, Sage Narada requested not to cut the fruit in two, lest the power be diminished. As a result, they had to decide to conduct a simple competition to decide who should get the fruit. Shiva and Shakti decided that the son who first circled the Earth would get the fruit. Immediately accepting the challenge, Lord Murugan started his journey around the globe on his divine vehicle, the peacock or mayil.
Lord Ganesha, who believed that his parents were his world, simply circumbulated Lord Shiva and Goddess Shakti and claimed the mango fruit. Lord Subrahmanya returned to Mount Kailash, only to find that Lord Ganesha had already won the contest. Lord Murugan felt he had been deceived and decided to leave Mount Kailasam. He reached to top of what is today called Pazhani malai (the Hill of Pazhani) and set up his abode there.
Goddess Shakti and Lord Shiva rushed to the hill and tried to pacify their son, calling him, Gnana Pazham Nee appa (in Tamil, "you are the fruit - Pazham; of wisdom - Gnana"). Hence this place came to be called Pazhani, or Palani.
Legend also has it that a divine siddhar named Boghar, created the idol of Dhandayuthapaani using navapashanam, an amalgam made from 9 poisonous elements which on getting mixed develops highly curative powers for many ailments of the human body, according to Sidhha Medicine practice. A small portion with a deity, dedicated to Boghar is also placed inside the temple. the adjoining walls depicts the history of the creation and other facts related to the temple.
More information from M.Dhandapani, Auditor, Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India. Even though number of festivals are celebrated in the temple throughout the year, two major festivels of Palani is "Thaipposam" and "Pankuniuthiram". Thaipoosam is the festivel celebrated on the full moon day of the Tamil Month "Thai" and Pankuniuthiram is the festivel celebrated on "Uthiram" star day. In both the festival times thousands of people from all over Tamil nadu come to the Temple by walk. Even from the places which are more than 300 Kms., distance from Palani, people come by walk with out wearing foot wears. Before starting walking yathra to Palani, the devotees must follow some practices such as fasting, avoiding wearing of foot wears, dressing with yellow or red coloured cloths, avoiding smoking, drinking of liquors and etc. On the days nearing to such festival days, we can see a very big crowds of people moving to Palani like river on Dindigul to Palani road, Sempatti to Palani road. Because of such heavy rush, the Tamil nadu Government has paved 6 feet berth road from Dindigul to Palani for the convenience of People. Many people issue on free of cost the Food, Tea, coffee,Breads, Drinking water, fruits and etc to the Devotees who are in Walking Yatra. The very famous such walking yatra group is Karaikudi group. In Karaikudi group hundreds of devotees are coming with one type of decorated wooden article called "Kavadi" on their solders. One Gold Vel (Vel is the weapon used by Lord Muruga to kill enemies)is also brought by this group. Hence the Walking yatra group devotees generally complete their Yatra when "Karaikudi Group" comes. After the Karaikudi group the rush will fall suddenly. Lord Palani Murugan called in other names such as Dhandapani, Dhandayudhapani, Subramaniaswamy, Palaniappan and etc., is very powerful God. If we pray for anything along with Lord Palni Muruga, he must comple it. Hence we are all try to visit Palani even once in our life in order to get his blessings.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) connects the town of Mettupalayam with the hill station of Udagamandalam (Ooty), in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India. Both towns are in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is the only rack railway in India, and uses the Abt system.The Nilgiri Mountain railway is one of the oldest mountain railways in India. Under consideration since 1845, the line was finally opened by the British in 1899, and was initially operated by the Madras Railway Company. The railway is one of the few in the world dependent on steam locomotives.
The Southern Railway India, in Tamil Nadu which operates the NMR, incurs an annual shortfall of Rs 4 crores, (~1 million USD). During the Centenary celebrations of Nilgiri Mountain Railway in 1999 Railway Minister Nitish Kumar announced that the line would soon be electrified.
In July 2005, UNESCO added the Nilgiri Mountain Railway as an extension to the World Heritage Site of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the site then became known as "Mountain Railways of India." after it satisfied the necessary criteria, thus forcing abandonment of modernisation plans.

The NMR track is 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) gauge and the railway is isolated from other narrow gauge lines.Between Mettupalayam and Coonoor, the line uses the rack and pinion system to climb the steep gradient. On this rack section trains are operated by 'X' Class steam rack locomotives manufactured by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works of Winterthur in Switzerland. These steam locomotives can be used on any part of the line (either with or without the rack section), but the newer diesel locomotives can only operate on the upper section, between Coonoor and Udagamandalam. The steam locomotives are always marshalled at the downhill (Mettupalayam) end of the train. The average gradient in this rack section is 1 in 24.5, with a maximum of 1 in 12. Between Coonoor and Udagamandalam the train is operated by a YDM4 diesel locomotive using conventional rail adhesion principles. On this section the locomotive is always at the Coonoor end of the train as although the line is not steep enough to need a rack rail, the ruling gradient out of Coonoor is still very steep at 1 in 25.
As of 2007, there is one train a day over the rack section, which starts from Mettupalayam at 07:10 reaches Ooty at noon. The return train starts from Ooty at 15:00, and reaches Mettupalayam at 18:35. The train is scheduled to connect to the Nilgiri Express, which travels from Mettupalayam to Chennai. A summer special service is also run during the months of April and May, starting from Mettupalayam at 09:30 and from Ooty at 12:15. Between Coonoor and Udagamandalam there are four daily trains each way.

NMR issues old style tickets, keeping in line with the World Heritage Site status.
Even though the NMR stations have networked computerised ticketing systems for onward journeys, it still issues old style manual tickets for the Ooty-Mettupalayam journey to preserve the World Heritage Site status of the railway. However, Ticket booking is similar to other conventional trains and can also be done via the Indian Railways' website. It is advisable to book tickets for this railway in advance, especially during peak season.
The majority of repairs to the locomotives are carried out at the Coonoor shed but many of the steam locomotives have been rebuilt at the Golden Rock Workshops. Carriages are repaired at Mettupalayam but, like the locomotives, are taken to one of the big railway workshops for major work. Due to its popularity, a number of passengers using the NMR have requested that the Southern Railways should covert the section from Coonoor to Udagamandalam to steam locomotive,extending the present steam traction between Mettupalayam and Coonoor

The train covers a distance of 46 km (28 miles), travels through 208 curves, 16 tunnels, and 250 bridges. The uphill journey takes around 290 minutes (4.8 hours), and the downhill journey takes 215 minutes (3.6 hours)

An excited crowd receives the Nilgiri Mountain Train at the Ooty station
Mettupalayam - 0 km, 1069ft above sea level - Junction with the Broad Gauge line from Coimbatore. Passengers cross the platform to the Nilgiri train. There is a small locomotive shed here and the carriage workshops for the line.
Leaving Mettupalayum, the line is adhesion worked and actually drops for a short distance before crossing the River Bhavaani, after which it starts to climb gently.
Kallar - 8 km, 1260ft - Closed as a passenger station, this is where the rack rail begins. As the train leaves the station, the gradient is 1 in 12.
Adderly - 13 km, 2390ft - Closed as a passenger station but is still a water stop.

Journey by the NMR provides spectacular views of the Nilgiri Hills
Hillgrove - 18 km, 3580ft - Block post and water stop, also has refreshments for passengers.
Runneymede - 21 km, 4612ft - Closed as a passenger station but is still a water stop.
Kateri Road - 25 km, 5070ft - Closed as a passenger station, trains do not stop here.
Coonoor - 28 km, 5616ft - main intermediate station on the line at site of the locomotive workshops as well as the top end of the rack rail. Trains must reverse a short distance before continuing their climb to Ooty. It is normal for the locomotive to be changed here with diesel traction, being normal for all trains to Ooty.
Wellington - 29 km, 5804ft
Aruvankadu - 32 km, 6144ft
Ketti - 38 km, 6864ft
Lovedale - 42 km, 7694ft

The Lovedale railway station
From a short distance before Lovedale, the line descends into Ooty.
Ooty- 46 km, 7228ft (2200 m).

Valluvar Kottam, located at the intersection of the Kodambakkam High road and the Village road, is one of the modern landmarks of Chennai, India.
It is important to note that Valluvar Kottam now stands in the point which was the deepest point of a lake which was located in the area. Notice how all the roads around the area are associated with tank. It was referred to as the Mylapore Long tank .
The monument was constructed in 1976 in the memory of Thiruvalluvar, the classical Tamil poet and saint who wrote his famous Thirukkurals about 2,000 years before. All the 133 chapters of the Thirukkural which include 1330 verses are inscribed on bas-relief in the front hall corridors.
The construction of Valluvar Kottam is like a temple chariot, and it is a replica of the temple chariot in Thiruvarur. A life-size statue of the Thiruvalluvar stands atop the 39 metre high chariot. The auditorium of Valluvar Kottam can accommodate around 4,000 people.
The architect of the memorial is South Indian traditional architect Dr. V. Ganapati Sthapati.
It consists of many temples.