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DESI DISCOVERY QUIZ 1
Click on the answer ONLY after you have tried out / attempted answering the question .
This over 100 year old shop in Tamil Nadu, does not have any name board. No AC. No proper lighting, forget LED, neon light. It opens only at 5.30 PM & closes by 7 Pm or till stocks last –which is not more than 30 minutes later. The que to purchase starts forming an hour before the shop opens. They make & sell only one product. The product that they manufacture is being manufactured & sold by so many shops in the town, that you need 100 people to count using their fingers. In the city bus stand, despite over 60 buses present, there are more shops selling this product buses for over 18 hours a day than the number of buses.
This Indian shop has simply blown away most marketing fundamentals & professed by all the management institutes, pundits, universities world over.
Identify the product & shop.
The place in Tamil Nadu has a linking factor to a second place-Hampi in the visual
Identify the linking factor.
DESI DISCOVERY QUIZ 1
Tirunelveli Iruttu Kadai Halwa ( translated as Dark Shop or no light Halwa shop)is the answer to the first question. The linking factor is the "muscial pillairs" at Hsopet & Nelliappar Temple in Tirunelveli. It is easier & faster to have darshan at the Nellaiappar temple, rather than get hold of 1 KG of sweet from this shop. It was once said that when you refrigerate it, the ghee oozes out to form a crispy grey scales over the Halwa. When you heat it again, it melts & becomes one with the Halwa. I have noticed the same in the Halwas of some other shops too. The ingredients used by all the shops are the same. There must be atleast 1 or 2 more shops other than this Iruttu Kadai that make Halwas as per traditional recipe of the same quality & taste. But they have not become as popular because IruttuKadai has effectively leveraged the benefits of the market stemming out of demand-supply gap. That probably is their only USP. Now, you know that all the numerous online sites claiming to deliver “ Iruttukadai Halwa” may not be true.
Tirunelveli Nellaiappar temple, besides this shop has some stunning musical pillars, just like Hampi. The musical pillars are the linking factor this week.
The intricate wooden carvings at the entrance, the musical pillars, ornate statues, numerous carved pillars are bound to keep you engaged.
The musical pillars have always been intriguing. There is a central stone pillar around which there are one to two circles containing numerous smaller pillars. The space in between the smaller pillars is so small that it is not clear in what sequence( bigger one first & then the smaller ones or vice versa) or how they were carved out of the single stone block. The second puzzle – what is the secret behind the different sound notes from different pillars carved out of the same rock? How was the rock selected & what is the science behind it? We will never get the answers for this. The musical pillars here are open to all & are not kept locked & that is a huge relief.
I had been thinking that I had seen all & had all in south Indian cuisine & there’s hardly anything new left. An invite to a Tirunelveli wedding proved me wrong. I was introduced to “Theeyal”, “sodhi” & a whole array of Tirnelveli signature dishes, that you get only here.