[An article on a road trip in southern India by Mrs. Swathi Ganti.]
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s rightly said by Ibn Battuta, one of the first greatest travelers in world history, “Travelling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”
Today I will narrate my exhilarating holiday to the god’s own country, a town with a prepossessing sunrise and sunset over the ocean, one of the char dhams, and an abandoned town at the south-eastern tip of Pamban Island.
A seven-member family, including two kids, started on a nine-day vacation to Trivandrum, Kanyakumari, Rameshwaram, and Dhanuskodi by road. After several days of planning, meetings, discussions, and to-do lists, we set out our journey finally.
Started early morning and began the journey with M. S. Subbalakshmi garu’s soul-stirring music. We drove 14 hours straight to Trivandrum from Bangalore.
During our drive, a huge number of windmills along the way were quite a sight to watch. We enjoyed authentic Kerala snack Pazham pori while sipping hot hot ginger tea.
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” Saint Augustine. Cannot agree any less. This travel gave us the opportunity to read, understand, and live a few pages of life.
Our first sightseeing place was the Jatayu Earth’s Center at Chadayamangalam in Kollam. It is 45 km from Trivandrum. The world’s largest bird sculpture is a delight to watch. The statue is a symbol of the protection of women and their honour and safety.
When Ravana abducted Sita, Jatayu tried to rescue her. Jatayu fought fearlessly but faced defeat as he was quite old. Ravana ruthlessly clipped his wings, and it is believed that Jatayu fell onto the rocks in Chadayamangalam. One can reach it through a cable car or by steps.
Our evening got much better with the visit to Varakala Beach. The stunning cliffs, golden sands, clear waters, and the cafes and shacks were just adding an altogether different vibe and feel to the evening.
The next day we visited Anantapadmanabhaswamy Temple. The 8th-century temple is one of the 108 temples dedicated to Lord Vishnu. In this temple, Lord Vishnu is in the Ananthashayanam posture—reclining on the Adi Shesha.
The deity is made from a sacred mixture called Kadasharakara, composed of herbs, resin, and sand. Our darshan wasn’t as fulfilling as we thought it would be. There was a long line, and we couldn’t see the deity properly. We assured ourselves, thinking next time we will plan a leisure darshan where we can closely see the revered deity.
Being in Kerala and not having Kerala sadya would be a crime. We enjoyed a good thali with Kerala rice, avial, sambar, pulissery, cucumber pachadi, pineapple pachadi, raw mango pachadi, naranga curry, upperi, chips, and 3-4 types of payasam. My brother wanted to enjoy hot payasam; he asked them to serve. Before he realized they served poli (bobattu in telugu) and added payasam on top of that. We didn’t know that was the combination to eat—payasam on poli 😛
Our not-so-lucky day with sight seeing continued. We reached Kovalam beach with all the picnic material to sit and relax, kids with their beach toys, and we saw that the beach was closed due to the monsoon.
It is not safe due to high tides, and it was just black sand. Well, we flew the disappointment with a fun kite game. The kite kept falling down because of the heavy wind, and we kept flying it again and again.
One kite taught us persistence, control, balance, facing challenges, and letting it go…
Between all the sight-seeing and driving around, there was a constant tug of war with kids in choice of music. They wouldn’t like our taste in music, and we don’t want to listen to their songs for the 10,000th time. 😃
Now the last point in the Kerala belt—Poovar. We headed to Poovar, the undistributed beauty. Poovar means stream of flowers—a red-colored Kovala flower that floats on the Neyyar river. We enjoyed the quiet and serene nature along with the resort life. Playing indoor games, buffet meals, ayurvedic spa. The Kerala food treats continued with nice puttu, stew, and kadala curry.
The next day we celebrated Raksha Bandhan in an unconventional setting. Since we were traveling, we carried our rakhis and celebrated at the resort. Then we headed to Poovar Island to watch the golden sand beach by boating, and we also saw the mangrove forest.
We had lunch at the floating restaurant while watching the beautiful sea.
The day just got better and better when we reached the southernmost tip of India, Kanyakumari. We reached just in time for the sunset and were all ready with our front row seats and eagerly waiting.
Our eyes were impatient to see a big orange ball in the sky slowly fading away from us. We were all living that moment in our minds and were waiting to see that in the sky, but before we knew it, the friendly clouds came and took away the sun to another party.
Just like we see in movies, after the exit of one hero comes another. And that was the super moon, also known as the blue moon. A supermoon occurs when the moon’s orbit is closest to Earth at the same time that it’s full. That makes it appear slightly bigger and brighter in the sky. Imagine our excitement when we watched the full moon in Kanyakuamari. 😊
I think the universe went and told the sun about our quest, and it blessed us with the most beautiful sunrise ever. A painter is not painting nature, but nature itself is doing the painting here. That sight and the display of a wonderful palette of colors are undescribable.
After the sunrise, we visited the Vivekanada Rock Memorial. Surrounded by the converging waters of the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Indian Ocean, the Vivekananda Rock Memorial offers visitors a peaceful retreat for reflection. The sea, soothing music, and cool breeze make us forget everything and just sit and watch the sea and live in the present.
Yes, if you are wondering, this trip is not ending. No, it isn’t! Time to take new roads and hit new waves. We finally reach the place we all wanted to visit for a long long time— Dhanushkodi, the last motorable road of India.
The clear blue waters, passively aggressive waves, and gorgeous white sand. You will feel instant infatuation with Dhanuskodi. The crush that will keep you longing to catch a glimpse of it again and again. In Telugu, there is a phrase called Andala Rakshasi (the beautiful devil). That’s what I would call this abandoned ghost town.
And also, the view from the lighthouse is spectacular. We visited the Panchamukha Hanuman Temple and saw the floating stone, which was made available for public display.
The next in the itinerary is one of the char dhams and one of the 12 Jyotirlinga shrines, Rameshwaram. We did an early morning darshan and performed Teertha snana at 22 kunds. Kudos to our kids, who woke up with us at 4:30 am and took snana in all 22 wells with us.
The next big attraction at Rameshwaram is the Dr. Abdul Kalam Memorial. A tribute to India’s 11th President and esteemed scientist.
The structure is adorned with murals, sculptures, and displays that chronicle his life, achievements, and visions for India. It also features an exhibition hall with photographs, personal belongings, and models of rockets and satellites that he worked on. It was very inspiring and encouraging to learn about the Missile Man of India. We also saw Dr. Kalam’s house when we went for a walk in the evening.
On the way from Rameshwaram to Madurai, we saw another two beautiful and oldest temples: Thirupullani Aadhi Jaganatha Perumal Temple and Utharkodamangai Sivan Temple.
At Thirupullani, Rama has done penance to worship the god of the ocean to seek way to Lanka in grass, giving the name Dharbasayanam to the place. Rama is in a standing posture in all the temples, but here in this temple he appears in a reclining posture.
Lord Rama used grass (‘pul’ in Tamil means grass) as a pillow to sleep, and hence the village attained the name Thiruppullani. It is an Ananthasayana Ramar temple.
The next temple we visited was Utharkodamangai Sivan Temple. The temple authorities claim that this is the world’s oldest and first Shiva temple.
The main attraction is a 6-foot-tall emerald idol of Nataraja, Lord Shiva, in his cosmic dance form. This rare idol, crafted entirely from emerald, is kept covered in sandalwood paste year-round. The day before Arudra, the paste is removed, revealing the idol to the public.
The villagers believe that Lord Siva belongs to this place, and every night he comes to their village and stays in the temple.
Last but not least on the list is our visit to Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai. The temple architecture, the sculptures, the deities—an extremely marvelous work. We were in awe of the 2500-year-old temple.
We saw at many places in the temple – sculptures with lion bodies and elephant heads. After reading, I gathered that they are called Yali— a mythological creature with the head and the body of a lion, the trunk, and the tusks of an elephant. It is believed to protect the temple and the paths leading to it.
Our drive back to Bengaluru became less tiring and very engrossing with our cousin’s plethora of mythological stories.
Romance with the beaches, blessings from the almighty, teertha snanas, admiring the beautiful temple architecture of our country, lip-smacking local food, stunning natural beauty everywhere, diverse landscapes, serene backwaters, endless conversations, and fun with family— this trip is undeniably the most memorable. We journeyed 2,200 kilometers to experience it all.
