Singapore Parata and Merlion: Much fondness for the Republic in Trichy

Tamil people from Trichy and its surrounding region came to the Republic during the 19th century to work as labourers and traders. They continue to immigrate to Singapore in pursuit of a better future.

- Debarshi Dasgupta

It is past midnight, but the Tiruchirappalli International Airport is coming alive.

Overseas flights usually land around this time and passengers are trickling out of its arrival gate, which is built to resemble the gopuram - or tower-gateway - of Hindu temples, common across Tamil Nadu.

Among them are single men, possibly blue-collar workers, headed to their families for a quick break with little more than a haversack and a trolley bag in tow. Families are returning home, too, for a holiday, pushing luggage carts laden with suitcases.

Standing along one side of the gleaming exit walkway are locals. Lots of them. Women have come to receive their husbands, draped in their finest silks and their hair embellished with jasmine threads.

Elderly men are here, too, to welcome their sons, wearing crisp veshtis, a sarong-like wrap, with their foreheads adorned with tilakas, a Hindu religious marking.

Some begin filming on their phones the moment they spot their loved ones, capturing the last few breathless moments before their happy reunion.

The passengers heading down the walkway turn it into a fashion ramp, with Indian migrant workers in the spotlight - "models" returning from West Asia, Malaysia and Singapore, as well as from farther away, like the US and Australia.

With more than twice as many international passengers as domestic ones, the Tiruchirappalli airport is a unique representation of the global footprint of the city's diaspora, as well as those from its adjoining regions, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Tiruchirappalli, or Trichy as the city is popularly known, does not have a direct flight to New Delhi, but has five daily direct connections to Singapore and 34 weekly flights to Kuala Lumpur.

Among the many who had come to receive their loved ones was Mr Rathina Sabapathy, a grocery shop worker in Kattumannarkoil, a town 120km away from Trichy.