15/12/2013:-

                It was a Sunday, and we had earlier planned to wake up early and visit Meenakshi Amman Temple, because it gets crowded almost after 0730hrs. However it was already 0800hrs when we got ready. We took only 2 of the 3 bulls, and proceeded towards the temple.

                After coffee and brief session by the vendor about the recent lighting that fell on the temple gopuram (temple tower), we proceeded towards the temple. As expected, there was a crowd and long queue. It wasn’t just the deity, whom you are visiting at these temples. It is also the architectural excellence which pulls large crowds even from foreign countries.

                Each time I visit these temples, I feel more proud to have such beautiful shrines in India.  They depict the dedication and rich cultural background which we have in our country. Even after 1000 years they stand tall and I am sure they will stay like this for another couple of centuries.

                After darshan, it was time for breakfast. “Have you heard of Murugan Idli?” Anto asked Abhi. That’s it we decided to have Idlies at the first ever Murugan Idli shop. Again, it was Google maps which guided us to the restaurant. We had another almost perfect breakfast, however were shocked to hear that they don’t serve coffee during breakfast. “What? Then it isn’t a perfect breakfast” we walked towards our bikes and had coffee at one of the famous “petty kadais” in Madurai.

                Just before starting our bikes, Abhi said he wanted to have Jigarthanda, one if the famous drink in Madurai. I suggested “famous” Jigarthanda, however Anto’s Google search pointed us to Jil-Jil Jigarthanda. I don’t know if both were same, or if we missed a lane on the map, but we ended in “Famous Jigarthanda”.

                It was time for us to hit the road already, however we agreed not to rush and spoil the happiness of riding. Around 1200hrs we were on the state highway to Rameshwaram. The tamarind trees on both the sides of the road, gave us a comfortable cool breeze to ride. There was a bit of opposite lane traffic because it was a two way road. I was riding slower again, which made Anto bit angry.

                We had all sorts of interrupts, from Buffaloes to donkeys, from hen to humans, from trucks to tractors. Everywhere I was behind and my team was all ahead of me. Atleast there should be some difference between those newer engines and this old cast iron, rite. We rode through Thirupuvanam, my great grandfather’s village, Paramakudi where Kamalhassan was born and reached Ramanathapuram again we were almost late for lunch. We atleast managed to get a small hotel this time.

                By now, I understood 3 valid points for me staying behind these two guys.

First, I had an issue with my speedometer. While it was showing as 80 kmph, it wasn’t actually running at 80kmph, it was running somewhere between 68-73 kmph. This we checked while we were on the way to Madurai itself.

Second, I was applying brakes too frequently than them. Because of this by the time I catch up the speed they go ahead for few meters.

Third, Of-course forget all the technical sh*t, they were riding faster than me what else do you expect me to say.

                We had a reasonable lunch and got ready to ride again. While we were almost ready to kick start, the restaurant owner came out to wish us good luck. Thanking him, we proceeded on our zig-zag, smooth snake track. While crossing Mandapam village and railway station, we already were feeling the salty breeze indicating we were very close to the coast.

                Just before entering Pamban Bridge, which one of the most wonderful modern day engineering excellence, we had a chance to enter a small lonely deviation. It took us to a very isolated sandy area just in between the Railway line and the Pamban Bridge. I couldn’t manage well on the sand, and dropped my bike to my right. It was just a matter of time before I heard a “crack” sound I understood something went wrong.

                My friends who managed to ride through a harder track in that area rode a few meters ahead and were very much involved in the scenery around us. They couldn’t have had a chance to notice that I had crashed. As usual they would have thought I was just riding slowly behind them. I managed to stand up, however lifting back my bike seemed to be an impossible task. I shouted to them and they came running to help me lift the bull.

                As expected the “crack” sound was nothing but a broken foot rest rod. Right end of it was broken. After all attempts, we came to a conclusion that it had to welded or replaced. However we can still ride the bike, only problem would be while applying brakes. I have to manage with the rear foot rest and bring by foot in front whenever I had to apply brakes. This wasn’t going to be easy for a guy who frequently applies brakes and I was sure that it cannot be fixed until we reached the next big town. Is it Tuticorin or is it Kanyakumari?

                While I was lost in these confusions, I saw Anto and Abhi were missing from the scene. They were already jumping around on the railway track and fully involved at the sea view from there. They obviously knew that it is not much of damage, I agreed to it and without wasting a second I joined their club. Almost all alone on a railway track which is running over a sea, I still don’t have any words to type our feeling.

                We took a couple of Facebook profile pictures and got back to the road. It was quite windy over the Pamban Bridge and I was able to see bunches of people standing on either side of the road to check out the view. I also took some snaps on the Bridge.

                We had expected Rameshwaram to be slightly bigger than what it was. The room which we had selected was just next to the main Ramanathaswamy shrine and we didn’t want to stay there. We realized that most of the hotels, cottages, guest houses were purely meant for the pilgrims and it wasn’t the only thing which we had planned to do here. We spent some time searching for a decent hotel, bit away from the shrine and good view of the sea.

                We managed to find one, Blue Coral Cottage, Sudukattanpatti (graveyard village). It wasn’t very scary; however the problem we had here was they offered us room only for one night. We had already decided to stay there for 2 nights because we had a lot of things to cover. Ernakulam was already out of our trip because Anto’s friend wasn’t coming. So we had already decided to stay 2 days in Rameshwaram.

                Something is better than nothing; we agreed to take that room for one night. We thought of getting a different room the next day. We got fresh, made a couple calls to home and friends. We decide to go out for a walk on the beach and have a drink at a nearby bar.

                Walking across those road-less lanes, we reached hotel Tamilnadu, which was supposed to have a bar in it. We searched a bit and were able to find the almost empty bar at a corner of the Hotel campus. Believe me; I haven’t seen such a lonely bar waiter in my entire life. A bored middle aged man behind the counter with a typical government employee looks stood behind the counter.

                “Bar???” I approached him to check if we had reached the right place.

                “Yes, this is!!!” he replied as if he knew the depth of our question

                “Where?” Anto asked without believing it still.

                “This is it!!!” the guy behind the counter cried, “This is the bar, that’s the AC Bar!!!” he showed us the so-called AC permit room. Broken ceiling, unpainted walls, uncleansed and unorganized tables and chairs, this was one of the best bars in that locality. It’s a holy town, what else can be expected. Of course people usually don’t visit there to booze and sleep.

The bar-wala understood what we were about to ask next, and before we could open our mouths he said, “Only Rum and Brandy! Beer No cold, Soft drinks are not available”. Ah, Just another feather on the crown. We were very tired and Anto even had a bad throat, we didn’t want to roam around further in search of other places, which may be worse.

Among us were a couple of north Indians and local-regular drunkards. The waiter/manager/supplier/ owner, that super all in one guy, gave us our drinks with the TV remote with the complimentary snacks.  With no cable or satellite TV connection, I wondered why he gave me the remote. He had connected his USB drive to the TV and had some songs in it.

After finishing our drinks, we walked towards the restaurant area of the hotel and it was already closed. It was just 2130hrs and walked again through those road-less lanes to find something to eat. There was a tiny mess and by the looks it was almost their closing time. Anto chose to check in his smartphone again for a better restaurant. Just before he clicked search, we dragged him into the restaurant and ordered food on his behalf as well…

With almost the whole town snoring, we walked towards our cottage, planning for the next day……… to be continued.