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About Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram)
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Trivandrum (official name Thiruvananthapuram), lying on the southwest
coast of India, is the capital to the state of Kerala. The place is
well connected to most of the other major cities of India through rail,
road, and air network. Because of its proximity to the sea, the climate
of Trivandrum is tropical. This also gives Trivandrum a very pleasant
weather round the year. The average maximum temperature can go up to
35.2 degree celsius in summer months and to a minimum of 18.0 degree
celsius in the winters. Monsoon comes to Trivandrum in the month of May
and remains until November.
Trivandrum is the knowledge capital of the Kerala, boasting of premier
R&D institutions of national and international stature such as
Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (Space Launch Vehicle Design and
Development activity), integral arm of the Indian Space Research
Organisation, employing over 7000 high tech professionals; the Regional
Research Laboratory which is home to scientists working in cutting edge
research areas of agro processing, chemical technologies,
biotechnology, waste water technology, material sciences and mineral
processing; the Electronics Research and Development Centre India ER
& DCI, which has established itself as one of India's premier
electronics design and development centers and training centres for IBM
mainframes; the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (www.rgcb.org),
Kerala's apex research center for Biotechnology; the Tropical and
Botanical Research Institute under the Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of
India; the Centre for Development Studies, a premier Social Science
research institution engaged in interdisciplinary research in the
development problems in India; the Centre for Earth Science Studies, a
centre for excellence in Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science
Education and Research(IISER-TVM)-an instituion dedicated to scientific
research and science education of international standards, Indian
Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST)- first in the world to
offer the complete range of undergraduate, post graduate, doctoral
programmes with specific focus to space science, technology and
applications. The Technopark is located adjunct to the main campus of
the Kerala University at Karyavattom that has graduate, postgraduate,
and doctoral programs in 41 different departments.
Places to Visit
A must on every tourist itinerary, the Padmanabhaswami temple with its
gopuram (tower) soaring majestically upwards, is believed to be one of
the 108 shrines sacred to the Vaishnavites in India. Within its
hallowed precincts, the main pavilion impresses with its 400
beautifully carved pillars of granite. The 100-feet-high gopuram
comprises seven stories with each center. The stone basement of the
tower is covered with elaborate sculptures and the masonry above is
replete with ornamental works of figures from the Puranas and other
ancient scriptures. Tapering towards the top, it bears the statue of
Garuda, the vehicle of Lord Vishnu. Inside the temple, the main shrine
is well guarded with a number of massive doors, and darshan (audience)
can be had through the three-door openings into the sanctum sanctorum.
Besides this magnificent temple, Thiruvananthapuram offers a great deal
more. There is the Observatory to start with, established over a
hundred years ago. Several kings have also built their palaces in and
around the city, each more impressive than the other. Despite a few
attempts at modernity, the city retains its discreet, old-world charm.
One can visit the Museum with its profusion of gables and turrets. A
repository of fine works of art, the chief attraction here is the
250-year-old temple car made for Lord Vishnu, artistically designed and
ornamented. Besides this, objects carved out of wood, models of temple,
antique jewelry, etc., make the museum worth a visit.
Lying within the museum compound, Sri Chitra Art Gallery proves to be
an ideal place for art lovers. The piece de resistance is the large
section devoted to the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma, an Indian painter
of distinction in the history of the country's modern art. Besides him,
the Indian section also contains works of Rabindranath Tagore, Jamimi
Roy, K. K. Hebar, miniatures from the Rajput and Mughal schools of
painting and the famous Tanjore paintings encrusted with semi-precious
stones. The gallery's collection also includes paintings from
Indonesia, China, and Japan.
Then, of course, a trip to Thiruvananthapuram is incomplete without a
boat-ride on its enchanting backwaters. These waterways teem with life.
It is not surprising, since there are more miles of waterways in the
state - approximately 1,900 km to the 1,000 km of rail. The landscape
is dotted with picturesque palms and thatched huts. One can be seduced
by the panorama of beautiful landscapes, beaches and waterways, coconut
palms and, of course, beautiful, friendly people.
Two nearby places worth visiting while in Trivandrum are Veli and
Shankhumugham; the former has been converted into a superb tourist
village while the latter boasts of lovely temples and a huge statue of
a mermaid presently being worked upon by a famous sculptor.
An absolute must is Kovalam that lies barely 18 km away. The beach is
considered one of the finest in the world and provides ingredients for
an ideal holiday. Besides swimming, there are opportunities for surfing
and water skiing - even an exhilarating catamaran ride into the sea.