Sojourn to the Land Of Temples

It was the end of September when we decided to go for a trip in the upcoming long vacation. So, I and my family sat together to chalk out our plans. My elder brother gave the best idea of spending the long vacation in south India. Accordingly the plans were set up by my father. As planned, we would be having several destinations, the main ones being Bengaluru, Mysore, Ooty, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Chennai and the temple town of Rameswaram. We would be starting from Guwahati, Assam to our first destination, Bengaluru, on the 18th of October, just after my half-yearly exams.

After some tension full days of the exams, the day of our departure from Guwahati finally came and we started for our long-awaited vacation to south India. We reached Bengaluru by the next day. After staying in Bengaluru for two days, we moved on to Mysore, then to Ooty and Madurai and at last, we made our way for the temple town of Rameswaram...

... as the train slowly crossed the railway bridge connecting the Indian mainland and the Pamban Island in Rameswaram, we were fascinated looking at the sea below. This turned into thrill as the train entered the 1941- built cantilever Railway Bridge that opens upwards in the middle for ships to pass under. Our tour guide told us that in 1964, a cyclone had struck the Eastern Ghats, in that way, Rameswaram and this railway bridge were also severely destroyed. After the cyclone, the government completed constructing the entire bridge in just 42 days!

I and my elder brother were seeing the ocean for the first time, so we were quite thrilled by it. When we reached Rameswaram, we got in our pre- booked cab, and we went to see the Ramanathaswamy temple, which was located in the heart of Rameswaram.

Inside the temple, we were told by our tour guide that this temple has the world’s longest corridor with 1212 pillars. Inside the temple, we took baths in the 22 holy ‘theerthams’ (wells). After praying at the main temple, we made our way for the Agni ghat (bank).

I clicked some pics of the wonderful scenery of the ocean and the fishermen who were fishing in boats at some distance from the banks.

After starting out from there, our next stop was at Ramar Padam. Our tour guide told us that, lord Rama had stood there and surveyed the area below to build the bridge to Lanka, to battle with Ravana and rescue Maa Sita Reference: Ramayana, Holy Book of the Hindus)

We took the photos of Sri Lanka from there, which was easily visible from that spot.

After that we made our way for the Hanuman temple, which was located in the outskirts of the city. After about 30 minutes later, we reached the Hanuman Temple. Inside the temple, we saw a large statue of Hanuman and a huge rock that floated in water. The rock is believed to be one of the many rocks used by Lord Rama and his monkey army to cross the great Indian Ocean to reach Lanka and bring back Lord Rama’s beloved wife, Sita from the capture of the Lanka king, Ravana. After coming out of the temple, we had sumptuous meal at a local restaurant and made our way for our hotel quite exhausted and sleepy.

We had to be ready tomorrow early as we had to catch our train to our next destination, Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the Indian mainland...

Thank you for reading till the end. Please forgive me, if you found the language of the article a bit childish, I wrote this article when I was in my 5th grade, but I couldn't help sharing this article about my trip to Rameswaram.

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Sayonara.