Visit to Rameswaram – January 2023

Last year we had visited Kashmir, the northernmost part of India, so this year we decided to make a trip to the Southernmost tip of India – Kanyakumari. Actually, we had earlier travelled down south to Maadurai, but on that trip, it did not occur to us that we could have made a side trip to Rameswaram and Kanyakumari as well. We always regretted having missed out, so we decided we would do that now. We decided on a trip to Rameswaram, then on to Kanyakumari and onwards to Thiruvananthapuram from where we would catch our return flight. To get to Rameswaram, one has to fly to Madurai and then a 4-hour taxi journey. As we discovered, there is only one direct flight from Delhi to Madurai and that too at 5:35am.  This would get us to Maduari at about 08:30 giving us some time for breakfast and then the taxi drive so that we could arrive by Lunchtime. We really had no option but to take this flight. Other flights were at more sensible times but being via-via took almost the entire day to get you to Madurai. It was the midst of the holiday season in Delhi, and due to severe congestion at the Delhi Airport reporting time was three and a half hours before departure. Working backwards, we decided to leave at 1:30 but our taxi service alerted us that due to extreme fog, traffic was very slow. So we left at 1:00 am, having had no sleep whatsoever that night. Fortunately, the taxi service we had chosen is based within our condominium so at least we were spared the tension of waiting for the taxi to arrive in the extreme cold and fog. The fog was indeed quite bad along the Noida Expressway, but we drove carefully and reached in time. Indigo airlines assisted us as senior citizens and gave us a check-in in priority, and we completed security and departure formalities quickly. We expected to while away our waiting time in the airport lounge, but for some reason, they were all closed. In fact even many of the chai-coffee stalls are closed at that hour and we were told they all open around 6am.

Our flight left on time and we landed in Madurai around 8:30. We were in no hurry as we collected our bags, there was enough time to get to Rameswaram. We had planned to eat breakfast at the airport food court before we left for Rameswaram, sadly the food court was not very appetising. Finding the taxi to Rameswaram was not as easy as we had thought. There is no fixed-rate Taxi service, no Ola or Uber and the fare they charge you is a return fare, twice what it should be. The drivers have a clique, they know you have no choice, and finally, we gave in to a driver who promised us a better deal at Rs. 4,000. Later it turned out to be more expensive as he added all kinds of entry permits and toll charges in addition to the agreed fare. This would not have been the case if we had agreed to the lumpsum charge of Rs. 5,000 – perhaps slightly negotiable – which was all-inclusive. The driver was otherwise pleasant and careful, but it was an unpleasant end to the cab ride when payment time came. But at least we were wiser for the rest of the trip. We were booked at one of the better resorts of Rameswaram, the JKR Spa where we would spend the next 4 nights.

As we approached Rameswaram, we crossed over the famous Pamban Bridge as that is the only access to the island town. A beautiful sight to welcome us on the start of our sojourn

Rameswaram is mainly a temple and religious town like Varanasi, and is an important pilgrimage for Hindus.  Its history is closely linked to Ram’s battle to rescue Sita from Raavan who had kidnapped her and taken her to Sri Lanka. The most important temple in Rameswaram is of course the Sri Ramanathaswamy Temple, which is dedicated to Lord Shiva and was just about 1.5Km from our resort. The temperature there was in the high twenties, but we were quite used to walking and were in fact looking forward to being out of the freezing Delhi weather where the temperatures were at 4 degrees. In fact, walking to the main temple was the obvious choice. It was a straight walk along a main road and there were several important temples along the way which needed to be visited.

There is the Laxman Teeratha Temple which is constructed in memory of Lord Laxman.

 

 

Just a couple of metres further is the Hanuman Temple, the only one in India which has an idol of the Panchmukhi Hanuman, the five faced Hanuman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sri Ramanathswamy temple has four major gates (North, South, East and West) and has the longest corridor among all temples in India.It is quite easy to get lost once you are inside as you follow the many corridors but as you weave your way around, one of the gates always pops up in the distance, so you know you can go out. As is the case with all temples in Rameswaram, no mobiles or cameras are allowed inside. The small shops outside provide locker services for a fee where you can leave your footwear and phones. The locker is nothing more than a  shoe box or a plastic box in which you place your belongings and you pray that when you return to collect them,  they will still be intact.  There is a Metal Detector manned by a police constable at the entry point, yet, when you go inside you see a number of people shamelessly talking away on mobiles and taking pictures. I think breaking the rules in the realm of God is not really something to be proud of. We spent much of the morning in the temple area and returned again the next evening. Just a couple of metres further from the temple is the sea, where the Seeta Teerta monument is located. As per legend, it was here that Sita had to perform the Agni Pariksha after being rescued from Sri Lanka. Some pictures we took at the temple are in the gallery below.

Rameswaram is also the home town of India’s most famous president – Dr. Abdul J Kalam, and his home is also along the way, not far from the temple. On our way back, we decided to pay our respects by visiting his home. The multi-story building is now a commercial building with a cafe and a gift shop being the anchors. Dr. Kalam himself was not married and had no family, but the Kalam name is being well exploited by his extended family for commercial purposes. Every shop there is a ‘Kalam’. There is no entry fee here, but to get to his actual residence where the memorabilia is placed, you are obliged to pass through the gift shop, where you are expected to buy something. Fairly large crowds and we quickly walked through and stopped at the open cafe, also a part of the commercial complex,  for some much-needed snacks and cold coffee. Good stuff, nice ambience and we felt refreshed after having walked in the hot weather.

Having covered all the temples on foot yesterday, we hired a taxi for a sightseeing tour. Our first halt was at a Bird garden, where we had a close interaction with some exotic birds. It was interesting and reminded us of our own African Greys which we had in Accra.

Our long distance destination was Dhanushkodi, about 20 Kms away, at the tip of India and of great historical importance. It was from here that the Ram Setu bridge was constructed across the ocean all the way to Sri Lanka, over which Hanuman, Ram and the Ayodhyans together with their elephants and Vaanar Sena crossed into Sri Lanka to defeat Raavan. Amish Tripathi in his newest book Lanka, though a work of fiction, is loosely based on some facts about this battle and he explains in detail how the Ram Setu was technically feasible and was able to stand the heavy weight load.

 

 

The strange part is that at Dhanuskhodi, there is no mobile network from any of the Indian mobile service providers. It’s probably shut down due to security reasons. However, we were able to get a mobile signal from Airtel Sri Lanka and we got a  message telling us to subscribe to the Airtel International Roaming Package if we wanted to make calls

 

 

 

 

Well, so that was an interesting visit and next day, early morning we would be heading to the Southernmost Tip of India – KanyaKumari