Date:August 15th, 2009
I left for the Chennai Central station to catch "Rameswaram Express" around 4:30 pm from my residence. I didn't carry much luggage. A backpack, filled with clothes & toileteries, some books ..thats it. Additional burden is my laptop.
I reached the station around 5 pm & headed towards to the reservation chart, to see the status of my ticket--whether, my ticket is confirmed or not, since I had a ticket with Waiting list 156!!! That sucks bigtime, specially the electronic tickets have rare opportunity to be confirmed!!!
Shucks...the reservation chart has final status of Waiting List 5!!! Now, what to do?? It was an overnight journey, I was already tired & sleepy as I did a night shift+morning shift & then headed for the station. Only solution was buying a general ticket[it is cheap, but seating conditions horrible--you may not even get to sit, forget about sleeping!!!].
Taking the name of God, I bought a ticket & boarded the train & found a seat for myself. While the train left the station around 20:30 hours, let me tell you the story of my destination, "Rameswaram". It is a historical, mythological temple, which houses a Shiva Lingam[a symbolic image of phallus of Lord Shiva], worshipped by mythological Shree Rama, before he went to Lanka[Present day Sri Lanka] to kill Ravan[a demon]& also worshipped on his return to India. This temple is located in an island, known as "Pamban" in ancient times. Since Ravana was a brahmin, Rama was advised to worship Lord Shiva, in order to get rid of the sins. Rama sent his disciple, Hanuman[a half man & half monkey] to get a Shiva Lingam from Kailasa. Rama was waiting for him to get the desired Lingam within a stipulated auspicious time, however, Hanuman could not make it on time. So Rama made a Lingam made of sand & worshipped Lord Shiva in that Lingam. Whilst Hanuman was late, he was quite disheartened when he found that all rituals are done. To console him, Rama installed the lingam Hanuman brought & ordered that the Lingam brought by him should be worshipped first. People say, it is made of pure crystal.
***
August, 16, 2009I dont know, when I went to sleep & I got up around 5 am in the morning. The coach was all messy..with people sleeping around. The experience of sleeping in a general coach can never be explained in words.The journey started getting beautiful. In a while, the train was proceeding to the extreme tip of the mainland. The scenery was beautiful & I could see a lot of peacocks around. The season is monsoon & the peacocks reminded me of Shri Krishna.
At around, 9 am in the morning, the train was passing through the Pamban Bridge. This is the bridge which connects the island of Rameswaram & mainland of the country. There is another bridge meant for vehicles though.It was a wonderful experience.
At around 9:30 am the train arrived in Rameswaram station. Many North Indians started getting down from the train. It was an auspicious month, Shravan[the fourth solar month], important for Lord Shiva & it was the last day too, August 16th, 2009.
I took an autorickshaw to reach the main temple of Shree Rameswaram & also to find a hotel for myself. The area around the temple was terribly crowded, long queues to enter the temple & to have the holy visit of Lord Ramanathswamy.I could visualise Lord Rama worshipping here in this site, centuries ago. After a having a holy visit of the Shri Rameswaram, I went to the see the sea. Here the sea is known as "Setubandha", reason being Lord Rama is said to have built the bridge to connect to Lanka from this site. Co-incidentally, the sea is very quiet & smooth here & not rough, compared to other places. I sprinkled some water on my head, since this water is considered very holy. Many people take bath here.
I started my quest for finding a room. It was difficult, since it being a peak time, many pilgrims, devotees come in this month. Secondly, hotels are reluctant to rent out a room to a single person or pay for double room!!!
At last, there was a way out. I met a tout, who allow me to use their bathroom for sometime, obviously against a fee & offered me a trip to Kanyakumari & Madurai. I was unwilling to Madurai, but Kanyakumari beckoned me for long. I took a bath, changed & again had the holy visit of Shree Ramanath.
After the visit, I just roamed around & had a quick lunch, as I was hungry. After lunch, I caught up with the tout again, & paid him lumpsum for a bus trip to Kanyakumari. Later, I found out, I was being duped!!!
It was a long journey in bus--9 hours. I was so tired, I think I slept most of the time. At around 11 pm, I reached Kanyakumari. I was hungry for dinner..had a quick dinner & then started checking out hotels for me. It was again difficult, even the bengali hotel owners.Some were blunt enough to tell me, "We dont rent rooms to single guests!!"...well...I could find one at last. It was a nice, decent, clean room, the bathroom was also nice. However, I should not complain--anything that comes in such a crisis period, specially a shelter for a night is a blessing!! The city was very windy & it is the Southernmost tip of the country. While listening to music, I went asleep....
***
August, 17, 2009I got up very early in the morning, though I went to bed pretty late. I got up early to see the sunrise. But the weather was bad...the sky was not clear ...
Dumped the idea, went back to my room, took a bath & headed for a local sightseeing. Rented a small cab to see the places around, the fort, some temples. Also a milestone, showing that Thiruvananthapuram is just 90 kms away. I planned of going there shortly. After all the small temples, I came back to the hotel & then headed for a trip to Vivekananda Memorial Rock. Here, Swami Vivekananda is said to have meditated for three days continuously, to find out the reason & also a solution for the problems India have been facing since the british rule. The rock also bears footprints of Devi Parvati, who is said to have performed extreme penance, standing on one foot.
There is a ferry service going to the Rock & it was wonderful journey. It takes around 10 minutes from the mainland to the rock. in the midst of the sea. A temple is there dedicated to Devi Parvati & also a memorial building dedicated to Swami Vivekananda. After roaming around, I came back to mainland to visit Kanyakumari Temple[Kanyakumari-Virgin Goddess], but alas, it was closed!!!So I was strolling around the beaches & also saw the wonderful confluence of three seas. I dont know, whether this is present anywhere else or not, but in Kanyakumari. Three seas--Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal & Indian ocean meeting together. A rare glimpse, a rare phenomenon....
So I had lunch, checked out from the hotel & took a bus to Trivandrum, around 1500 hrs.
It was a 3 hour journey from Kanyakumari & reached around 1830 hours. The sole reason for going to Thiruvananthapuram[Trivandrum in short] was visiting the temple of Vishnu, known as "Padmanabhaswamy Temple". Since, I dont know the place well, I took an auto to reach the temple & contacted the office in the temple. As a custom, male pilgrims have to wear a dhoti[a loin cloth, wrapped around the waist] for visiting the god. I took one on rent, deposited my belongings & went inside to have a visit of dear lord. It was very dark, near the sanctum sanctorum--the only source of light were oil-lit lamps.
I entered the main room, where Lord Vishnu is residing. He is in his sleeping posture & the idol is 18 feet long. It is really big & the visit was truly inspiring. After offering my prayers to Lord Vishnu I sat in the courtyard of the temple & recited Vishnu Sahasranaam. After recitations, I changed my clothes, collected by belongings & headed towards the station.
Once I reached the station, my next activity was to find out a train to Chennai. Shucks..no train leaving for Chennai, before 3 am the following day.Where to sleep????
I bought a general ticket & asked the station master, if they have single room for a couple of hours. Fortunately, I got an air-conditioned room, a small room ..but enough for 6-7 hours.
***
August 18, 2009
I got up around 2:30 am in the morning...took my belongings & left the room to catch the train. Once I boarded I asked the travelling ticket examiner if he can give me a confirmed berth. He was able to & I reached Chennai around 9 pm in the evening. After reaching Chennai, I called up my boss, "Chef, I am back. Shall I come in morning shift tomorrow??", he replied, "yes".
Back to work.... :)
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