The Tirunelveli Diaries - Tirunelveli

 Tirunelveli is apparently divided into the old and traditional part of the town which is called Tirunelveli and the other part of town called Palayamkottai is across the river Thamirabarani. Palayamkottai is also called the Oxford of the East because it has many schools and colleges and I saw one of them - Schaeffer school - which looked like it was from a British era. The town was ruled by the Pandyas, Cholas, Cheras, the Vijayanagara empire and the British over the years.

The river Thamirabarani

The western ghats

Tirunelveli is also called Nellai and has a massive Nellaiappar temple which we visited twice. Loved it. Apart from the temple there is always this talk of Tirunelveli halwa which we tasted and gave up - I never really liked it very much. Our hotel was well placed - five minute walk from the bus stand, a seven minute walk from the railway station. A wonderful place for lovely filter coffee and an evening snack of appam or idiappam at Hotel Maruti down the road, the nice fruit stall where we would buy bananas and pineapples and apples, the murukku shops with that unbeatable murukku. 

The Nelliappar temple

Corridors

The temple elephant

Jyo and I walked one day to the river which was not far from where we stayed. The western ghats loom in the background and there is an abundance of green, the skies are bluer, the winds hustle. 

Chariots

Corridors again

One rest day we visited the Nellaiappar temple (Lord Shiva, Parvathi and also Lord Vishnu), Jyo, Chattu and I. Chattu can speak decent Tamil so we went in early and were trying to figure our way about when a man who looked like he owned one of the pooja shops told us where to keep our shoes and then when we went back, took us into the temple and gave us a guided tour and some special darshans. The temple is massive with large corridors, many idols, a huge tank, intricate sculptures. It was an amazing one hour that we spent in the temple before we came out.

On another day Jyo and I visited the Uthista Ganapati temple which was being decked up for the Ganesh festival which was coming up. It was a much simpler and smaller place but since there was some activity going on we did not spend much time. 

Uthista Ganapathy temple

I am sure there must have been a lot more to Tirunelveli which i would have liked to explore but I managed only so much. What I saw I liked. 

Fruit Shop

Old Shoe Mart

The hospitality of the staff at RR Inn - Madan who was so friendly and helpful, Sanju Khan who was ever smiling and helpful in the restaurant, the lady at the reception who had a big smile and boundless energy, the coffee and appam an idiappam at Maruti Restaurant, the fruit stall guy who would slice pineapples and give us, the crispy murukkus. It all helped. 

The Tirunelveli Diaries - Suchindram

We started off from Kanyakumari around 1030 or so after another cup of coffee and I told the driver to take me to Suchindram which is where my editor Sandhya hails from. I had once seen a picture of a temple she had posted which stayed in my mind - and that thought that said - I should go there once sat. So we went to Suchindram which was a small detour. Once again they said we have to take off our shirts to enter the Shree Thanaumalayan temple and while Jyo decided not to, i decided I would and headed in. 

The entrance to the Stanumalayan temple

Beautiful painted corridors

It was a huge complex with many temples - the main idea being that all three Hindu gods are worshiped here - Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. I wandered around the temple and was awestruck at its size, the many idols, the carvings, the ceilings and stepped out after buying some prasad. 

The general view of the pic that Sandhya had shared - her house to the right somewhere

Beautiful tank

Once outside I called Sandhya who said she would have organised a nice temple tour if I had told her earlier. Anyway I walked around the water tank which was beautiful. drank some coffee and then headed back to Tirunelveli.

This is from the temple entrance - loved that building to the right

We were back by at the hotel lunch despite the driver trying to entice us with some non-vegetarian lunch places. I think he hoped we would pay for his lunch.          

The Tirunelveli Diaries - Kanyakumari

 One thing I knew about Tirunelveli is that its about 2 hours from Kanyakumari, India's southern most tip. More importantly I had promised both my mom and my mother-in-law that I would take them there and things never worked out during their lives. So I was really keen to go there on their behalf and on mine. Jyo was a ready partner in the adventure and we decided to do a sunrise visit.

Now, we had checked into RR Inn at Tirunelveli which was a semi-decent hotel but the staff was super helpful - Madan, Sanju and co. We asked Madan to organise a carfor us at 4 in the morning so we could be there by 530 am and watch the sunrise. Chances of clouds playing spoilsport were very much there but least we could do was show up. So we went- me and Jyo - and a garrulous taxi driver whose name I now fail to recall. The road to Kanyakumari was superb. One stop for chai and we were in Kanyakumari by 530 or so.

Most of the action there is towards the southern part - the sunrise point, the Bhagawati Amman temple, the Vivekananda Rock, the Thiruvalluvar statue, the sangam of the three seas, the sunset point etc - all within a km. Jyo and i hurried in the dark past a massive, well lit church, towards the sunset point. There was a pathway made of rocks -more like a breakwater which was fully occupied by people getting closer to the sunrise for a better view. 

Jyo loves to walk and so did I and we walked the distance to the tip and took pics and the skies lit up (reminded me of the scene I described in If You Love Someone). All kinds of people, all ages scrambled there. One lady struck up a conversation with Jyo about health awareness and informed us that she has a villa in Hyderabad.

The sunrise was the most beautiful I ever saw - the sun rising out of the sea. It was surreal.

Anyway we headed back to the main area and went to the temple which they said required us to take off our shirts. Now I had no qualms about taking the short off but something in the way he said it put me off and I decided not to go in. We went to the Saravana Bhavan and ate some insipid idlis and left rather disappointed. From there we headed to the ferry that would take us to the Vivekananda Rock - the Poompuhar Shipping Corporation. The first one leaves at 8 or so and there was a special 300 buck ticket and a normal ticket. We chose the 300 buck one and got on to the boat.

The Vivekananda Rock had a meditation place where we sat and meditated for a while. There was a statue and some nice places to view the new massive Thiruvalluvar statue. After half an hour we took a boat back and came back to land. We walked around behind the Bhagawati Amman temple and went to the place where all three seas meet. Many people were there praying, wetting their feet and so on. There were a lot of travellers from North India, Rajasthan in particular. Vendors sold pineapple, mango, corn and stuff. One photographer took our pic for 200 bucks - a terrible pic!

Kanyakumari!

The Tirunelveli Diaries - Rameshwaram and Dhanushkodi

This was when we were still in Tuticorin. I checked out the distance between Tuticorin and Rameshwaram - I doubt if I will ever be so close - so I decided to go for it whether anyone came along or not. Rameshwaram is one of the four holy dhams for Hindus - Puri, Dwarka and Badrinath being the others I think. The distance was some 180 kms and it was to take about four hours. Since our match finished in three days, we had a full day to ourselves. Jyo, Chattu, Santosh, Krishna, Sajid and Subhash wanted to join so off we went in an Innova, slightly cramped but full of high spirits. Time of dep - 730 am.

Chai stop - Jyo, Chattu and Krishna

Pamban bridge - uplifting

The road was not the best for most part which we were warned about - single road mostly. There were many windmills, one of the features of the deep South, lot of wind, almost howling mostly. Then there were these women who would have these huge barrows in which they carried water in plastic buckets - water was a problem here so close to APJ Kalam's hometown. We stopped for a chai at a nice joint and off we went onwards. There was some Muslim festival going on - lots of people coming by in all kinds of vehicles.

Cute house - Rameshwaram

The Ramanathaswamy temple on Rameswaram island (its a Shiva temple) is one of the 12 jyotirlingas. Story is that  the lingam was established and worshiped by Lord Rama before he crossed the Ram setu. It is one of the four dhams of the Char dham pilgrimage that crisscross India - Dwarka in the west, Barinath in the North and Puri to the East). The original temple was expanded by the Pandyas in the 12th century and it has the longest corridor among all the Hindu temples. There are 64 teerthas, 24 of which are important (a dip in all cleanses your sins), 12 of them in the temple itself.

Entry into the temple

The Pamban bridge was the first of sights that invigorated us - people stopped by and took pics whc they are not supposed to as the bridge had sea on both sides and connected the mainland to Rameshwaram. Beautiful sight! 

The famous corridors

The temple

Our major concern was getting to the temple before 12 because it was to be shut till 4 pm after that. We somehow made it by 1140 and rushed in. The first thing about Rameshwaram is the huge, painted corridor that we walk into, shops on either side. There was no prohibition of photos so I clicked away. We bought ourselves a 200 buck speed darshan (there's a 100 buck one as well) and that pretty much speeded up our darshan. Though it is called Rameshwaram, the deity is of Shiva and it is believed Lord Rama prayed to Shiva here or something to that effect. Darshan done - there are other rituals like dipping oneself in 21 teerthas - which we did not do. We stepped out of the marvelous structure with its longest corridor and beautifully painted ceilings and walked into the hot, hot sun and could barely walk on the road. 

Near Dhanushkodi - sea on both sides 

A railway station of the ghost town

A sip of coconut water and we hopped into our Innova and headed to Dhanushkodi which is a tapering piece of land from where Lord Rama and his army of vanaras were supposed to have built the Ram setu. Sri Lanka they say is a mere 40 kms from the end of that land. People cannot stay back in Dhanushkodi and must return by 5 pm.

Traffic jam at end of land

Fish meal at hut

There was once a village they say ad a proper civilisation with a railway station, houses and such which was destroyed in a cyclone. All that remains now is the ghost town of Dhanushkodi. Our driver took us into the strip of land packed with cars and minivans and such, causing a huge traffic jam. We got off some distance away - sea on both sides, gusty winds that blew our caps away. I walked by the sea and wet my feet, walked right to the tip where there is a circular path. People just sat there watching the ocean - pineapple and mango strips there to eat along with coconut water. My phone got stuck so I could not take pics. Also realised that we were out of India's network and our Airtel network was showing international roaming.

Our dhaba - many such here

View from lighthouse of land end

Ghost town view

We soon made our way back to the Innova, found ourselves a hut which the driver suggested was best for local fish curry and rice and we sat down for a nice meal. After that we headed out - Krishna, Santosh and me climbed atop the lighthouse from where we got brilliant views of the Land's End and the ghost town and then climbed down. 

Rama temple 

Pamban bridge

Not enough time to check out the Kalam Memorial so we skipped it and went (we passed by a sign that said, way to Kalam's house) and a huge tank. We stopped for a moment on the Pamban bridge and then off we headed back to Tuticorin.

Love these - cricket in open grounds

More cricket

Homeward bound!

One stop for chai and snack and we were back at the Hotel by 8 pm. Day well spent.