I am surprised that I have written till alphabet ‘T’ of the A2Z 2026 series and I haven’t written anything about my small favorite city this entire month yet! 🙂 So, here goes my musings about ‘Vellore’.
‘Vellore’ is a small city in North Tamil Nadu. It is equidistant from Chennai and Bangalore and is located in the center between both of them.
There are many stories as to how ‘Vellore’ got its name. Here are some of them:
- Lord Murugan putting his “Vel”(divine spear) down in Vellore and that is considered to be one of the reasons for ‘Vellore’ to gets its name
- ‘Veyil’ or the sun is so hot here and that is yet another reason for its name
Whatever be the reason, I love this cute and sweet little place. Here are some more facts about this sweet place:
- It is a Tier 3 city(after living in a Tier 1 city, it is a refreshing change)
- The cost of living as you can expect is much, much lower than Tier 1 cities
- There are no malls. Period.
- Life is simple. No extravaganza. No fancy cars, not all houses are worth a crore or more
- IT is not a major business here(in fact, there might not be any IT companies here at all)
- The city shuts down by 9 p.m. which is very sweet for me(the circadian rhythm is followed accurately)
- Business is the only major occupation
- There is only one season here and that is summer! 🙂 March, April and May are the harshest summer months. Temperatures casually touch 40+ degrees all through April and May
- No traffic here. In fact, you can cross the city in 10 minutes. You can go from point A to point B in Vellore very easily.
- There are no airports here. The closest airport is either Bangalore or Chennai
- Simple people, simple life
I love this little city in North Tamil Nadu, because it is associated with two of my favorite people (among many others, of course :)) – my father and my daughter.
My father lived a long, long time ago in this place for close to 20 years. His formative years were in Vellore and he must have led a pleasant life with his parents and siblings. I can almost visualize his early years in Vellore even though he has never spoken about it.
Vellore is home to Vellore Fort which houses the popular Vijayanagara Era Shri Jalakandeswarar Temple. It is also home to Sri Lakshmi Narayani Golden Temple, VIT University and many other attractions.
After experiencing life in tier 1 cities and living abroad, it is the simplicity of the town and its people that draws me back to this place time and again.
This post is for alphabet ‘V’ for BlogchatterA2Z by @blogchatter