16/12/2013:-

                We had planned to visit Ramanathaswamy temple and Danushkodi (The ghost town) today. We walked down through the village streets and reached the temple, where we were told to keep the mobiles, cameras and other electronic gadgets outside in a cloak room.

                After the usual formalities, we were allowed inside the temple, it was another beautiful temple with remarkable idols and a divine essence flows through you as soon as you enter the temple. Except for the crowd, everything else gives you a divine experience, but crowd will be the first thing you would notice.

                It was very crowded and we didn’t want to become extra burden to the already tired, temple staff. We prayed from the entrance itself and took a round of the temple corridor. The longest corridor among the Hindu temples, were just colorful. They must have recently done the painting work, which completely hide its antic looks. The crowd was increasing and we managed to come out of the temple. That’s when I had a hidden urge to see the God, and kept it for the evening.

                After breakfast, it was time to visit Danushkodi the ghost town. There is road connectivity almost 3kms from Danushkodi. The place is called as Chathiram. We can ride or drive in our own vehicles there, however you need a four wheel drive after that because it is quite sandy.

                The first impression on reaching there was that we could do it. Without a second thought I rode on the sand track, until it got struck within 15-20 meters. This time my friends were not ahead of me, infact they were behind me, leaving me ahead to see what happened. I tried a couple of times to get it out of the sand, and by the time I was almost successful a jeep was just behind me honking badly. He wouldn’t even give a minute and almost sat over his vehicle’s horn itself.

                This is irritated me very much, and with Anto, Abhi and other villager’s help we pulled the heavy weight champion out of the sand and parked it on a road side. I for some extent felt that we were being forced to use the local transport from there, for their business benefits. With no other go, we parked out bikes, and started to look for Jeeps. We came to know that Jeeps can’t be hired from Chathiram, if needed we will have to hire it all the way from Rameshwaram.

                The only option left for us are the maxi-cab vans, which moves after stuffing 20-22 people in a 16 seater vehicle. When we boarded the first one, Anto’s knees were touching on his cheeks. I decided to wait for the next one with a better seat. We got the next van after almost 20-25 minutes and started dancing forcibly in the van. After almost 25 minutes of slow roller-coaster ride, we reached Danushkodi. Thanks to the window grills, which I was holding until we reached.

Sand, Sand, Sand on almost all the sides with some petty shops selling necklaces, bracelets, wind chimes made of sea shells. It was bit hard to walk on that sand, but the quest to reach the silent waves just within few meters made us walk faster. We took few snaps around the devastated village and took up a conversation with one of the shop keepers.

His name was Elango, and he was born 4 years after the terrific 1964 cyclone, which completely washed this small town.  While he was talking about that incident which approximately could have taken more than 100 lives, it looked as if the old buildings were back in shape. He almost took us to the past, and explained how this small port flourished with businesses. It was the nearest sea port to Srilanka and every day 100s people use to travel through this port. They had Ship Captain’s resting quarters, Immigration Centers, Railway stations, Schools, Church and everything. But today, only the word “THEY HAD” remained with few ruins to prove that.

Elango, explained how the winds changed directions, and how they used to move from one shore to other shore.   Of course, Gulf of Munnar and Bay of Bengal were not just beautiful two seas for them. They are gruesome at times and Gods save these people when both of them get angry. Danushkodi was one of the ghost towns, which were declared unsuitable for human existence after 1964. However few fishing families decided to stay back and go with the tide. They have been allotted government houses and plots within Rameshwaram town, however they don’t know any other business than fishing. So they just stayed back.

Our friend Elango also said, we could have gone till the tip of Danushkodi in our bikes itself. He said we could have taken the bike near the beach and could have ridden it on the water. It sounded as a great idea for us, and we were going to execute it as soon as we were back to Chathiram. One the way back to Van, we say the sacred floating stones. These were the stones taken from the bridge built by Hanuman and his Vanar Sena (monkey force). It was altogether a different feeling when we felt the sacred stones floating.

With mixed feelings, we boarded the van back to Chathiram. It was lunch time and since we didn’t find any proper place to have food, we decided to ride back to Rameshwaram. We left the operation “sea shore ride” for some other time and proceeded towards the town.

Santosh was ahead of us, and while crossing beach jungle, some crazy thought took over him. He took left and started riding towards the beach. It was just 400 meters of beach sand between us and the sea. We say him taking the rough route to the sea, and without waiting for a second, we also followed his track. Elango, would have thought that we were on some 100cc or mopeds to give us a suggestion to ride on the beach.

This mammoth machine wouldn’t just move ahead. Anto was ahead of us and seeing him very close to the sea, we also fought our way and reached the wet waters. With a great struggle we reached there just to find how badly Santosh was struck in the sand. We parked our bikes, in-fact it wasn’t necessary to use the rests because the wheels were already struck deeply inside the mud. We three lifted the rear wheel of the bike and managed to pull it out of the sand, and then came the challenging part. Where would you drop the rear wheel, so that it doesn’t get struck again? That’s nowhere near to us and Anto was in dragging the bike to find a better place to park it.

We were so involved in getting his bike out of the sand, that we almost forgot where we stood. As soon as, Anto was out of sand and was trying to park his bike at a better place, Abhi and I turned around to look at the sea.  Calm, Silent, Smooth waves were kissing our feet and without our knowledge it was also eating up the sand below our foot.

I turned to my left and it was a never ending coast all the way, and turned to my right except for Abhi there was no one else for almost miles ahead. I wanted to sit there and relax there for some time, and that’s when Abhi said “Machi!!! Kodak moment” with his teeth popping out of his thick beard.  Yeah, it was sure a moment to capture through lens and we started clicking each other’s photos. I bet mine came out very nicely because Abhi had a better camera and also has a steady hand.

After the Photo-shoot, I pushed Abhi’s bike and helped him to get it out of the sand. Anto was not around and I thought he reached the Road in the act of finding a better place to park. We also decided to ride back to the room. Abhi was ahead of me and I was left all alone, to take my bike out of sand. Instead or riding it, I put it on the first gear and started pushing it. It gave me a good result and my bike moved bit slowly ahead. Yeah with almost 80 kgs out of the bike, it would even sail smoothly on this sand. I wasn’t that correct though, after a few meters even that failed. Abhi parked his bike a bit ahead on small grass patch, and came to my rescue.

While we were pushing my bike ahead towards the grass patch, Anto came back from the tiny strip of woods which was just next to the road with a fairer version of Abhi.

Tim, was a middle aged Australian who was on a road trip like us, but he was all alone. I remembered seeing him while we were riding back from Chathiram and Tim was travelling on the other direction. With a small introduction, we found Tim getting restless. He wanted to get into the water badly. The beach was so near and calm, anyone would want to do the same.

I stood aside, while Tim, Abhi and Santosh jumped into the water. Their expression, showed how the felt inside the water. The sun wasn’t bright or hot and the water wasn’t salty. This tempted me as well and even I ran into the sea.

After a couple of dips in the sea, with no one around to stop you or watch your crazy actions Santosh and Abhi tried to pull me deep inside the water and failed. Time passed and we didn’t even realize that we had a long way ahead, till the bike, the bike to the road, and the highway to Rameshwaram.

When got ready when our tummies started to cry. We rode back to Rameshwaram again through the scenic state highway and reached our hotel. This time the difference was Tim was with us. Earlier today, the hotel team agreed to rent us a bigger room for the next day and we had already shifted the luggage to the other room. Tim managed to get a single bedroom for himself in the same cottage.

I wanted to visit the temple because I was told that it wouldn’t be crowded in the evenings. The others had plans to have food and a couple of drinks.

We parted ways, as soon as we got fresh and I started walking towards the temple and this time I was prepared and left the footwear, mobile and other electronic gadgets at the room. I took the same route to the temple and to my surprise the crowd was considerable less, in-fact nil. I had a long, peaceful and blissful darshan of the lord Ramanathaswamy and walked through the empty corridors of the temple.

I realized that even I hadn’t had any food after breakfast. Walking through the tiny lanes I reached the Rameshwaram beach. I had few chats, samosas made by guys who usually prepare bhajjis and bondas the south Indian snack varieties. It was getting dark and I returned to my room and even 3 musketeers were also back after their mini lunch. Tim wanted to keep a name for the group because he was also travelling with us till Kanyakumari. We had our versions and soon forgot about it while discussing more interesting topics.

We started playing Rummy in our room. Each of us was playing our own versions and it was dinner time within no time. We didn’t want to end up with less options like the previous night and decided to ride to the nearest, decent non-vegetarian restaurant.

Hotel Prakash, behind the temple was upto our expectations. Tim wasn’t sure what to order, and all of us including the waiter suggested our favorites to him. He ended up with fish fry and Parotta. After our dinner, we rode back to our rooms. I forgot to mention about the usual starting trouble in Abhi’s bike. It wouldn’t start until and unless you dance with it for a few times, and I learnt that trick while we were in Madurai. However Abhi wasn’t doing well when it comes to starting the bike. So, when I got down from Anto’s bike and went to help Abhi, it sounded funny to Tim. Not for us because we were already getting used to it.

We rode back to our hotels and sat on the terrace. It was almost a full moon day, and the moon was shining in the sky. We were able to see the clouds catching up with each other very fast in that moonlight. While, Abhi, Anto and Tim were very much involved in discussing almost all topics in the world, I lied down facing the sky. I started counting the clouds chasing each other and matching the stars in the sky. If not for the floor beneath me and for the folks sitting around and discussing world economy, I would’ve thought myself flying towards the moon.

Anto also was feeling sleepy, and enough counting the clouds and stars, we decided to hit the beds……….