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Published: February 14th 2007
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Recently, I made a list of things that I would like to do in life. Visiting Rameshwaram and Danushkodi was right on top of the list. So, when I had the time a week or so ago, I decided to head down south. I had to do a lot of bus hopping before I got to Rameshwaram. It was my first time there, but I felt I had been there before. It was a very strange feeling.
On the bus from Pondy to Vilupuram, I met a young man from Trichy whose name was Chithambaram. We talked a little and I found out that he was a fine arts student. He quickly did a small sketch for me which was nice. We talked a lot about many things, life, the universe and everything.
Chitambaram gave me his address and details for me to write to him and said that I could visit him anytime and stay with him for a few days. When we got on a bus to Trichy, we met a police man who was sitting next to us. I think he had some alcohol before getting on the bus and he was very friendly. He was
carrying an Enfield 303 rifle which kind of scared me a little. I asked him whether the gun was loaded, he said no and I didn’t have to worry too much about it.
All three of us got into a conversation which didn’t really stop for a long time. The police man, Sakthivel had to be very careful with the gun; he couldn’t afford to lose it. He was hugging it like a baby. So I asked whether he had a name for his gun and he said no. I suggested a name of a Tamil movie actress, for which we all laughed. It was crazy to be having a conversation at 1 a.m, about girls and guns with two strangers that I had just met.
Sakthivel and Chithambaram got off at Trichy and I continued on the same bus to Madurai. When I arrived there at 4 a.m, there was a bus waiting to leave for Rameshwaram. It was pretty crowded; I couldn’t get a seat for an hour or so.
The bus arrived in Rameshwaram at around 8 a.m. Rameshwaram is an island; the only way to get to the island is by train or
by bus. The train line was established during the British times. In those days, they had trains running all the way to Danushkodi, the place that is pretty close to Sri lanka. They had a regular boat services from Danushkodi to Thalaimannar a small town in Sri Lanka.
When I was a little boy, I had spent a lot of time with my grandfather. He was born in Sri Lanka and lived there till he was about 33 or so. His grand parents moved from India to Kandy, a place where Tamil labours were taken there by the British to work in the tea plantations. They had most of the relatives in India, so one day my grandfather decided to visit his relatives. I would like to believe (it certainly makes it more interesting to read!) that he fell in love with my grandmother and decided to stay on in India.
After he got married, he made several trips to Sri Lanka and back. When I was a kid, I used to be so fascinated by his stories and I would ask him to tell me the same story over and over again. He had mentioned about the
boat that he had taken from Rameshwaram, name of that place always stayed on my mind. As a kid, I wanted to travel wherever my grandfather had been, but I guess I had to wait this long to do it.
Back to the trip, the people in Rameshwaram were so friendly and very nice. In some places, it was like any other tourist place where Indians shit, piss and throw all their rubbish on the streets. I decided to visit the famous temple there, but I didn’t want to get inside, it was very pretty from the outside.
From the temple, the sea is not very far. There were a lot of people on the beach doing poojas for well being of their parents or for all the sins that they have committed in their lives. I was pretty surprised to see so many young people doing the poojas.
I took a bus to a place called Dansuhkodi, which was washed away in a cyclone in 1964 killing just about everyone who lived there. It was an hour bus ride from Rameshwaram town, and then you would have to walk the rest of the way through these
sand dunes. Most of the road that was there has disappeared and all I saw was just sand.
It was unbelievable, the sea was so blue and so was the sky. The sand was so white, the beach was very clean, I never seen anything like this in India. I had to walk for two hours to get to the place where it used to be “Danushkodi Station”. I couldn’t find any sign of the train tracks, except a couple little piece of metal sticking out of the ground.
Even in the ruins, people still live their in huts and fish for a living. It’s not these fisher folks don’t have money to build nice homes; the government doesn’t allow any concrete structures to be built here. Quite often the beach gets washed away in the rough seas, so it’s pretty dangerous for people to live there even now.
I find it easy to chat with people when I travel alone than when I am with another person. People are also curious to know where I am from and what the heck am I doing alone wandering about the place. After the usual questions: where are you from, how old are you, etc, the conversation would always take big turn after the question why are you not married.
I always have the same answer; it doesn’t really matter where I am. “Well, I am looking for a pretty girl and that’s why I am here!” It doesn’t matter whether the enquirer is of 60 or 16, they would be so friendly after that and they would even offer to find a girl for me. It was one of those kinds of conversation I had with this 66 year old man that day.
His name was Chinna Swamy and he was a very nice man. I asked him a lot of questions about the ruins, he pointed out each building and what it was in those days. The day that the cyclone washed away, he wasn’t in the village, he had gone out to the town. At the time, he was 23 years old.
He pointed out in the direction where the pier stood once and where the people went through the customs etc. Unfortunately, the pier was demolished by the government in 1993.
I had a very nice lunch with fish at a road side shop. It was amazing. The woman asked why I wasn’t eating much, which was after I had two big servings of rice. Everyone in else in the shop was eating a lot, I couldn’t believe how much they ate. Most of my friends, they generally complain (most of the time secretly!) about how much I eat and this woman was telling me I wasn’t eating much. J
I had to say good-bye to the blue seas and white sands. I figured it wasn’t a good idea for me to camp there for the night, so headed back to Rameshwaram town.
More info on Dhanushkodi:
Dhanushkodi in Wikipedia
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Hari
non-member comment
Lovely post!!
Hi. I visited Rameshwaram in July 2005 - you can check out photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19909552@N00/99011875/in/set-72057594063507319/ I really enjoyed this post!! I tried visiting Dhanushkodi but we didn't realize you either had to walk or take 4WD. I was with my family and we didn't have much time so we didn't visit Dhnushkodi. I hope to visit Dhanushkodi's ruins one day. There is something very 'inviting' about it. Thanks again for the pictures and making this post. Do you have more pictures of Dhanushkodi?