rameswaram_aug_2005

And our sins were washed away

Many a month ago I promised Piya (my friend from work) that I would accompany her on a trip to rameswaram, the Kasi of the south. This set the stage for my latest travel. Two weeks ago she came to my cube & insisted that I keep this promise, thanx to her perseverance within the next half hour we had two more of my colleagues (swarna & meenakshi) ready to join us on this pilgrimage (at that point), the dates finalized and the tickets reserved (really fast decisions considering we were all four girls J). Within the next two weeks after a lot of google search I knew that rameswaram is an island separated from the Indian mainland and connected by the pamban bridge, is a pilgrim centre for both vaishnavites & shivites, has a temple housing the linga that Lord ram & sita created after their victory over ravan, has coral reefs on an island near it which we would not be able to access without permission due to it being declared an ecologically rich zone, had no resorts. Also within the same two weeks the enthusiasm & publicity built thanx to our dear on board PR-manager (The one & only piyu)… - Jealous guys in the office reminded us that rameswaram is a piligrim centre & not a beach resort (little did they realize that they were half “way off” the truth)

D-day finally arrived – last minute packing & shopping done & we were set to go. Right from the moment we set out in the taxi to the station it was “A perfect holiday” (tu tu tu nazar na lag jaaye). After a heavy dinner at COMESUM (Somebody tell me y anyone would name a restaurant this), a short wait for the delayed tutucorin express, some chatting on board the train, a lovely sleep and 10 hours later we reached madurai at 7:45am. Some benefits of traveling in a 3-tier AC are a comfortable & cozy sleep and access to really good waiting rooms. After freshening up we set out to find transport to our destination. Worthy of comment at this point is the help we received from the station masters, porters and tourism office (I guess 4 girls traveling alone did the trick). One porter guided us to a travels who agreed to take us to rameswaram for Rs.200 per head. We reserved our tickets, had a really good b’fast and set out in a sumo (luckily for us there were no other passengers and we had the whole vehicle to ourselves. The driver was helpful. From him I gathered that since the tsunami the tourist/pilgrim inflow to rameswaram has drastically reduced. Though it really is a miracle that this piece of land located completely in the ocean did not face the wrath of the tsunami (makes me believe it is a blessed land). Did some google search on this & the non-divine scientific explanation is that the island of srilanka deflected the killer wave away from this consecrated land. The only effect that people noticed here was that water receded a lot before the tsunami hit the other areas.



There were many huge windmills on the way. I kept pestering the driver along the journey that I had not seen kadal (ocean in tamil) yet. But it was worth the wait. When I first saw the waters I felt like it was a dream come true, a wide expanse of shallow aquamarine waters. As we neared ramnad (or ramanathapuram) we saw the bridge that connects the island to the Indian mainland. This two and a half kilometer stretch of ocean can be crossed either by road (Indra Gandhi bridge)or rail (Pamban bridge). The rail way line is a british era steel meter gauge bridge. Trains cross it at the speed of 5 km/hr.


The view while proceeding from the mainland to Pamban Island. From the top of the Indira Road Bridge, the left shows a Scherzer type, meter gauge (1000 mm gauge) steel railway bridge, which opens up, as cantilevers, to pass maritime traffic.



Just before we enter the bridge on one side of the road we see a beautiful park that allows access to the beach and on the other side is the boat service. We boarded a fibre glass bottom boat and headed out into the crystal clear waters to see the coral reefs. A half-hour ride where for the first time I saw coral in their natural habitat first hand(after having ogled at shows on discovery & nat geo for a long time now). Though not as colorful as what we see on tv it was a good experience. We saw corals which had the outer appearance of the human brain, the intestine and the regular corals. The boatman told us that if we returned early in the morning we could see the corals above the water due to low tide and he would take us near the bridges. So we planned to go back there the next morning. We then set out towards the green island. Another 5kms and we reached rameswaram. Checked into the “Sea view suite” of hotel Island. This room was located on the 3rd floor and overlooked a small harbor where all the fishing boats were anchored. After a quick bath & a even quicker lunch we boarded a shiny green four wheel drive jeep to head towards danushkodi, the southernmost tip of the island which is closest to srilanka.

This place stands testimony to natures wrath, once a human settlement reduced to ruins by a cyclone in 1964.We drove through nearly 15kms of white sands to reach that point where you see the calm & placid waters of the bay of Bengal on one side (locals refer to this as the SHE-sea) & the waves in the Indian ocean on the other side (referred to as the HE-sea). I just could not resist it, the calm and transparent waters), handed over bag & baggage to the others & slept in the ocean “talk about water bed”. Within a few minutes of referring to me as “pagal” even piya & meenakshi were unable to resist the waters. We had a lovely time in the waters. We walked upto the tip of land where the two oceans met. It was one beautiful moment. On our way back we checked out the ruins of the city, all that’s left of it are the walls and pulpit of a church, the pillars of a water tank, walls of a few other buildings all filled with sand. I tried to recreate how that area must have once been a centre of activity in its days of glory. We also visited the kothandaramaswamy temple which is also situated on the coast and bore the brunt of the cyclone, but remained the only survivior. It has been renovated hence. One friendly swami from the ramana maharishi ashram told us that it was at this temple that Vibishana(brother of ravana) submitted to Lord Rama. Once back in our room, the others went exploring the city. From the pics they shot & the stuff they bought I can say that the shopping area is really colorful with articles made of sea shells & coconut. After dinner we enjoyed gazing at the star filled sky from our balcony. The sea breeze was beautiful. End of a beautiful day with a beauty sleep.

Come Sunday & we set out to the temple. The main highlights of the temple are the 22 wells within the same compound where the composition and taste of the water differs between each of the wells(theerthas). There were a lots of pilgrims from both north & south India. There are many touts in the temple who for a charge of Rs. 50 will draw water from each of the wells and pour it on you. Since we did not carry a change we preferred to sprinkle the water on our heads, though we were the odd & only dry ones out there. We then got a good darshan at the sanctum sanctorum which houses the linga made out of sand by Lord ram & Sita on their return from Lanka after defeating Ravan. This linga is one of the 12 jyothirlingas in the country. There is also a impressive corridor of pillars about 1200mts in length. We cancelled our boating trip since we were running late. We also had to change our plans to return by train since the timings did not suit us. So we boarded a ‘Point to Point bus’ (to be read as point to point with many points in between). It was hot 4 hour journey but we managed fine with the caps & fans & cold towels. Back in madurai, after a near accident in one auto we checked into the retiring room at the railway station (the others say the whole trip was made to fulfill this wish of mine). We then headed towards Madurai meenakshi temple and were fortunate enough to get a quick and good darshan. Then back to the station, got our dinners packed and started our return to home sweet home.

All in all a wondhuful trip (rombha rombha super in tanglish). Am looking forward to my next visit to this beautiful temple city. Right now busy working on getting rid of the tan ;-)

For trip pics visit http://picasaweb.google.com/deeptipookat/Rameswaram_0607_aug_2005