I begin this post with a quote, a quote which since the day I came across has left an impression on me.
" Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain
With backpacks on our shoulders, we headed off to what was going to be a Spartan travel experience. Travelling only by the public transport, no cars or caravans. Our plan was to travel to Kanyakumari from Hosur via train, spend a day there. Hitchhike to Rameswaram, spend two days there, then head to Madurai and return to Bangalore. We had booked our train tickets and luckily got a confirmation too.
Enchanted by the smell of smoke and the cacophony in the station, we had a rush of adrenanlin when we saw our train arriving onto the platform. We quickly boarded the train, the six of us hopped onto the train as though we were running for our lives. We quickly located our seats and made it our home. Then began the fight for the upper birth, it was one of the wits and not of fists luckily. We arrived at an agreeable covenant. Then came out the snacks. There was a whole bag of biscuits that my friend had brought along and I had bought a pack of home-made sweets, the famous Mysore Pak which my mom had told me to hang on to till the Ugadi festival, which was to arrive in a couple of days. Nobody gave heed to my mom's words and the sweets got over in a jiffy. So much for the Festival sweets.
The whole gang decided to split up, one party went to explore the train, another party sat near the door and I was put on guard for the luggage there. Everybody arrived back in an hour and by then it was time for dinner and we picked up whatever that was available from the pantry and crashed in our berths.
The next morning, we woke up on arrival at Kanyakumari, the first of our destination, it was around seven fifteen. We hopped off the train and hitch-hiked to auto-stand. There was the usual auto vs bus debate, being the so called treasurer of the group, I decided we'll take the auto by doing a simple math in my mind. I put myself beside the driver sharing the driver's seat between us, while the rest of the pack settled behind, although many find it juvenile when I say I love sitting infront. In the midst of chaos happening behind, I tried to strike a conversation with my dilapidated Tamil, while the driver kept pitching us for a tour of Kanyakumari. In the midst of this amazing conversation, I constantly checked up with my friends on the programme for the day.
The rickshaw driver brought us to a hotel ( a cheap but decent one ), Two friends and I hopped off the auto-rickshaw and headed off to the hotel lobby along with the rickshaw driver. The rickshaw driver mediated the deal for us, telling the Hotel manager to give us a reasonable discount. On hearing the word discount, the two friends and I unequivocally in our broken Tamil demanded discount. The manager nodded his head and asked us to check out the two available rooms and settle down in the one we liked.
Although I didn't want into be the recon party, on insistence of my friend I went ahead and inspected the room. The room seemed alright equipped with a flat screen LCD TV and we were thrilled about it. The room was tidy and just outside, we had a clear view of the Ocean, we were more than happy about it. The boys crashed inside the rooms. Then a few of us including myself headed up to the terrace, some of them clicked pictures. We then headed back to the room, took a shower and made up a plan and headed out.
Dhoti clad grown men, sunglasses over our eyes, we headed to the legendary Kanyakumari temple. Situated by the shore, this temple although not known for it's grandeur, this temple has a certain element of mystique associated with it. A temple which is over 3000 years old has a divine aura to it. We entered the temple, the admirable thing was that the inner most sanctum was lit by Oil lamps, on the idol of the goddess, there were two stones that twinkled like the brightest of the stars. It seemed as though two LED's had been installed on the Goddess's face. It was There is a legend which says that the great warrior and mentor Parashuma, once lit a lamp at this temple and the lamp glows on till today.
After the temple visit, we headed to the ferry which would tow us to the renowned Vivekananda Rock and the humongous Tiruvallavar statue.
We headed to the ticket counter which was neatly built and organised well. Again my treasurer post landed me with job of having to stand in the que and buy tickets. I went to the counter and indicated six tickets and the gentlemen handed me over 6 tickets, in return I handed him over the cash and left the place. We went to the boarding area, a good thing there was the life jackets which were provided to us. (A rarity in India). We put on the jackets and boarded the ferry. That's where we saw, what Chacha Nehru rightly described as the Ethnic melting pot. Punjabis with their turban, folks from the UP countryside in their white Kurta and Dhoti, the local folks in their lungi and shirt and a few urbane folks in their jeans and polos.
" We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race."
- Kofi Annan
The ferry took us to the epitome of spiritual enlightenment, the Vivekananda Rock. It stood their in all its grandeur with an aura around itself. All of us hitch-hiked to the top of the rock, the sun was blazing hot and as a result our legs started crying. On the rock, there was one room called the meditation room, at the centre of which was a OM engraved in metal lit in fluorescent green. The room dimly lit and the folks sitting around there engrossed in meditation, all this added to the air of spirituality prevalent there.The experience left me in a trance!By then my friends came down and the ice was broken. The photo-freaks started clicking photos and my enthusiasm to pose went down after a couple of clicks. We were through with Vivekanada rock, we then headed to the ferry and which took us to the humongous Thiruvallavar statue, which is a symbol of the richness of the Tamil literature. While climbing up the stairway to reach the foot of the statue, I saw the various works of this legendary literarist inscribed in Tamil and in English. The richness and the meaning these words carried were sublime. On that note, we hopped onto the ferry again and headed back.
Then we headed to the beach to cool ourselves off. Three of the boys threw themselves in water and were coming in and out of the water like amphibians. After they had had enough of the water, did they emerge out. By then, the time was forty minutes past five.
Our next stop was Gandhi memorial. This memorial truly symbolises the influence and the aura of the Mahatma. A place where the Mahatma's ashes were placed before immersion has become a monumental spot in Kanyakumari, the beauty of this building is that on the 2nd of October, the sun's rays fall on the spot where the urn was placed.
After paying our respects to the Mahatma, we left the place to head to what's the customary place of visit in Kanyakumari, the Sunset point.
The sight there was sublime. A giant ball of reddish orange stood there descending gradually towards the ocean. We were waiting for the holy union of the horizon and the sun, just when the sun decided to play hide and seek with the clouds and before the sun could reveal himself it was already sun down. Although a little disappointed, we headed back to the room with glee.
That was the end of our first leg, we headed next to Rameswaram in the night train.
Day one out of four.
Watch this space for the next three
" Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
- Mark Twain
With backpacks on our shoulders, we headed off to what was going to be a Spartan travel experience. Travelling only by the public transport, no cars or caravans. Our plan was to travel to Kanyakumari from Hosur via train, spend a day there. Hitchhike to Rameswaram, spend two days there, then head to Madurai and return to Bangalore. We had booked our train tickets and luckily got a confirmation too.
Enchanted by the smell of smoke and the cacophony in the station, we had a rush of adrenanlin when we saw our train arriving onto the platform. We quickly boarded the train, the six of us hopped onto the train as though we were running for our lives. We quickly located our seats and made it our home. Then began the fight for the upper birth, it was one of the wits and not of fists luckily. We arrived at an agreeable covenant. Then came out the snacks. There was a whole bag of biscuits that my friend had brought along and I had bought a pack of home-made sweets, the famous Mysore Pak which my mom had told me to hang on to till the Ugadi festival, which was to arrive in a couple of days. Nobody gave heed to my mom's words and the sweets got over in a jiffy. So much for the Festival sweets.
The whole gang decided to split up, one party went to explore the train, another party sat near the door and I was put on guard for the luggage there. Everybody arrived back in an hour and by then it was time for dinner and we picked up whatever that was available from the pantry and crashed in our berths.
The next morning, we woke up on arrival at Kanyakumari, the first of our destination, it was around seven fifteen. We hopped off the train and hitch-hiked to auto-stand. There was the usual auto vs bus debate, being the so called treasurer of the group, I decided we'll take the auto by doing a simple math in my mind. I put myself beside the driver sharing the driver's seat between us, while the rest of the pack settled behind, although many find it juvenile when I say I love sitting infront. In the midst of chaos happening behind, I tried to strike a conversation with my dilapidated Tamil, while the driver kept pitching us for a tour of Kanyakumari. In the midst of this amazing conversation, I constantly checked up with my friends on the programme for the day.
The rickshaw driver brought us to a hotel ( a cheap but decent one ), Two friends and I hopped off the auto-rickshaw and headed off to the hotel lobby along with the rickshaw driver. The rickshaw driver mediated the deal for us, telling the Hotel manager to give us a reasonable discount. On hearing the word discount, the two friends and I unequivocally in our broken Tamil demanded discount. The manager nodded his head and asked us to check out the two available rooms and settle down in the one we liked.
Although I didn't want into be the recon party, on insistence of my friend I went ahead and inspected the room. The room seemed alright equipped with a flat screen LCD TV and we were thrilled about it. The room was tidy and just outside, we had a clear view of the Ocean, we were more than happy about it. The boys crashed inside the rooms. Then a few of us including myself headed up to the terrace, some of them clicked pictures. We then headed back to the room, took a shower and made up a plan and headed out.
Dhoti clad grown men, sunglasses over our eyes, we headed to the legendary Kanyakumari temple. Situated by the shore, this temple although not known for it's grandeur, this temple has a certain element of mystique associated with it. A temple which is over 3000 years old has a divine aura to it. We entered the temple, the admirable thing was that the inner most sanctum was lit by Oil lamps, on the idol of the goddess, there were two stones that twinkled like the brightest of the stars. It seemed as though two LED's had been installed on the Goddess's face. It was There is a legend which says that the great warrior and mentor Parashuma, once lit a lamp at this temple and the lamp glows on till today.
After the temple visit, we headed to the ferry which would tow us to the renowned Vivekananda Rock and the humongous Tiruvallavar statue.
We headed to the ticket counter which was neatly built and organised well. Again my treasurer post landed me with job of having to stand in the que and buy tickets. I went to the counter and indicated six tickets and the gentlemen handed me over 6 tickets, in return I handed him over the cash and left the place. We went to the boarding area, a good thing there was the life jackets which were provided to us. (A rarity in India). We put on the jackets and boarded the ferry. That's where we saw, what Chacha Nehru rightly described as the Ethnic melting pot. Punjabis with their turban, folks from the UP countryside in their white Kurta and Dhoti, the local folks in their lungi and shirt and a few urbane folks in their jeans and polos.
" We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race."
- Kofi Annan
The ferry took us to the epitome of spiritual enlightenment, the Vivekananda Rock. It stood their in all its grandeur with an aura around itself. All of us hitch-hiked to the top of the rock, the sun was blazing hot and as a result our legs started crying. On the rock, there was one room called the meditation room, at the centre of which was a OM engraved in metal lit in fluorescent green. The room dimly lit and the folks sitting around there engrossed in meditation, all this added to the air of spirituality prevalent there.The experience left me in a trance!By then my friends came down and the ice was broken. The photo-freaks started clicking photos and my enthusiasm to pose went down after a couple of clicks. We were through with Vivekanada rock, we then headed to the ferry and which took us to the humongous Thiruvallavar statue, which is a symbol of the richness of the Tamil literature. While climbing up the stairway to reach the foot of the statue, I saw the various works of this legendary literarist inscribed in Tamil and in English. The richness and the meaning these words carried were sublime. On that note, we hopped onto the ferry again and headed back.
Then we headed to the beach to cool ourselves off. Three of the boys threw themselves in water and were coming in and out of the water like amphibians. After they had had enough of the water, did they emerge out. By then, the time was forty minutes past five.
Our next stop was Gandhi memorial. This memorial truly symbolises the influence and the aura of the Mahatma. A place where the Mahatma's ashes were placed before immersion has become a monumental spot in Kanyakumari, the beauty of this building is that on the 2nd of October, the sun's rays fall on the spot where the urn was placed.
After paying our respects to the Mahatma, we left the place to head to what's the customary place of visit in Kanyakumari, the Sunset point.
The sight there was sublime. A giant ball of reddish orange stood there descending gradually towards the ocean. We were waiting for the holy union of the horizon and the sun, just when the sun decided to play hide and seek with the clouds and before the sun could reveal himself it was already sun down. Although a little disappointed, we headed back to the room with glee.
That was the end of our first leg, we headed next to Rameswaram in the night train.
Day one out of four.
Watch this space for the next three
