Travel in Tamil Nadu-Part 2
Dhanushkodi - The most beautiful get away in TNHaving spent the first half of the day in Srirangam and Trichy, the bus drive brought me to Kumbakonam by 4pm. I spent the evening visiting temples in Kumbakonam- Sarangapani, Chakrapani, Ramaswamy and Uppiliappan- the first time I was visiting these temples in over 2 decades.
By 930pm, I caught on to a Thanjavur bound bus and two hours later, I was on board a fully packed TN state corporation bus(that played some good old Tamil movie songs) to Pudukottai from Thanjavur’s just built new bus stand*(far away from the city). From the Pudukottai bus stand, I spent Rs. 20 for an auto drop to the railway station.
With little time left, I quickly took yet another unreserved ticket and was just in the nick of time to catch the Sethu Express around 1am.
For the next hour, I sat there in the unreserved compartment watching a group of guys playing cards. Traveling by ‘unreserved’ shows what life is outside the unreal PR world that I had lived in- a few of the guys were students, a few just completed college and looking for their first job and quite a few doing not so high paying jobs. And these guys had an expert comment or two on everything in life- Sachin Tendulkar to Rajnikanth, TN politics to Sri Lankan issue.
By 4amish, I was standing by the door side watching the breathtaking sight of the train moving across the fabulous Pamban bridge- a rail bridge that once used to open regularly to allow ferries to move along the water way…. And to see the longest road bridge alongside, it was a sight to behold!!! While I had heard of the Pamban bridge in the past, one really has to experience the train journey across the Pamban, especially the early morning(pre dawn) trip to feel what an asset it is to TN tourism.
Past the Pamban bridge, the train moved along slowly with the thick white sandy shores of Rameswaram along side the track.
That night train journey between Pudukottai and Rameswaram ranks as one of my best to date. Any travel within TN would be incomplete without the train journey across the Pamban bridge. Guess we will have to wait a bit for the next train journey across the Pamban bridge, with the broad gauge conversion taking place now.
A bath at the Rameswaram Railway Station, a quick visit to the RamanathaSwamy temple on the seashore and I was all set for my ‘Dhanushkodi’ exploration.
By 8am, I was all excited about the journey to Dhanushkodi. I took the local bus from Rameswaram to Dhanushkodi. It is a lovely 15km drive, not all of which bring pleasant memories - the ruins of a ravaged railway track- 1964 cyclone completely devastated Dhanushkodi including the railway station and the track. The Rama temple still stands amidst the ruins- a small road to the left leads to the temple.
The bus leaves me at the farthest part where road can take one. From there, I am led to a truly stunning experience-totally unexpected. A small open truck took 25 of us, all standing, on a 6 km drive on the hard thick white sand. The driver had to use hard card /metal board below the wheel, at several points along the route, to push the vehicle into the next yard. We were charged Rs. 25 a person then for this trip(to and fro).
Finally, we reached the southern most tip on the island at the confluence of the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The sand is white here and the seas clear blue. While most played around the beach, I sat there with thoughts exploring ways to reach other side of the shore- North Sri Lanka so to say. The Northern most tip of Sri Lanka is just about 7 nautical miles from here. I even tried asking the folks there if I could be boated into Lanka but this was summarily dismissed.
Other than the 25 of us, there were none else, except of course a few security men who put us through a complete body scan (this was said to be the place where Lankan refugees came back to Indian shores). Actually, it is scary-the tip of Dhanushkodi- its far away from the nearest road- 6 kms away from another soul. Absolute silence- Yet beautiful.
After about half hour of solitude at the BOB-IO confluence, we were back in the truck and on our way back. Chatting up with a few got me insights into what happened that dreadful day in 1964, which washed away almost everything at Dhanushkodi. There have been talks now and then of redoing the railway track to Dhanushkodi. Hopefully after the broad gauge conversion up to Rameswaram, the concerned authorities would look once again into reconstructing the Dhanushkodi line.
Dhanushkodi may not be a place for the weak hearted but for the brave tourist who like quiet getaways without the hustle and bustle of city life, this place is definitely worth a visit. Beware though of the dangers of cross border wars!!!!
To me, the 6km truck drive to the southern tip of Rameswaram will ever be etched in memory.
The bus brought me back to Rameswaram and I took the train back to Chennai later that day.
* Thanjavur was one of the first in TN to set up a bus stand away from the city. Several others have followed suit since- Tirunelveli, Chennai, Madurai…
Labels: Travel in TN
posted by PRabhu S @ 6:55 pm
2 Comments:
Hi Prabhu,
I really enjoyed your Radio Commentary write-ups. I have some videos of the matches you have described, can upload some clips for you if I get a chance. You have described some of my favorite rare matches, it was spine-thrilling to read them :)
The Feb 26 '85 game: India vs Eng was a classic. I too returned home to see England going strong, something like 86-2 in pursuit of 236. We had to go out and I was surprised to see the Indian victory on the next day's Hindu.
And yeah, I was listening to the running commentary of the TN-Hyd game where V.Siva made 86 and 98* and Jyotiprasad hit 4 sixes. Small world really :)
I was planning to post some screenshots of the WCC 85 semifinal, which happened exactly 22 yrs back. Will do if I get the time.
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