Rameshwaram - Devipattinam

Jan 3rd Monday Night

My sister’s engagement is likely to be fixed on Feb 7th and the astrologer had made this shraadh trip sine quo non. I left the dinner preparation to my sis and went for my vocal classes to discover that I have to learn new songs for Thyagarajar aradhana on 23rd. I rushed back home, packed luggage, neatly arranged things in home and rushed to busstand. Our Sethu exp was at 10:40 pm and it departed close to 11 pm. We woke up at 2:50 am in Ramnad and alighted at station a little after 3 am. We decided to hire an omni.

Devipattinam

My friend (who has applied for divorce just weeks after his wedding last year), had performed the same rituals few days earlier in the same places where we were going and had already warned me about the rates and the prevailing conditions, however nothing prepared me for the presence of Coovam in Ramnad.

The cute iyer on his bike had a spashta way of speaking shuddha tamizh and his father-in-law iyer with crooked hands was the guy, who directed all the procedures. After taking bath in the in the iyer's bungalow, we approached the sea. It stank like coovam, just like my friend had described. (The old guy told us later that it would be worse in thai and purataasi.) Nevertheless, I prayed and took a dip in that waveless sea like others. Then the younger iyer stepped inside the water and we did nava bhasana pooja and a pradakshina in the hip to neck deep water. After some procedures and 10 circumambulations around vinayakar and arasa maram, we had to get a mini kudam of water from another equally septic water tank that stank feces. After some more procedures were over, the old iyer, bid me to sit and poured that water on me and asked me to change dress. We discarded the wet clothes that we had worn previously and immediately one old lady took those dresses and vanished. After 2k per head for two homams and extra money for pooja items, we sevichufied KadalAdaitha Aadhi Jeganatha Perumal and returned to railway station around 8 am, just in time for the 8:30 Rameshwaram passenger. Incidentally, the omni driver (ex-state bank manager) had dad’s name and his son had my bro’s name.

Rameshwaram

I climbed up the luggage rack of the passenger train and woke up just as the train reached Pamban bridge. We were picked up by the kind police guy in his police vehicle (thanks to Chithappa’s acquaintances) who arranged everything right from lodging, shraaddh poojari, temple pooja escort and local sightseeing the next day.

Amavasya Shraaddh Ceremony

It was around 10 am, and I had not carried my lavender umbrella and so I put the towel over head to protect my hair and skin from the mildly scorching sun. The iyer reprimanded this, stating, one should not cover their head. I chose to ignore this. First, we were asked to make 11 dips in the sea. Then a few procedures and then 36 dips in the pen kadal which had comparatively milder waves. This guy, unlike the Devipattinam mercenary iyer, was patient, explained the inner meaning of each procedure and ritual. This guy charged us 4.5k. After finishing Go pooja and making the offering, it was close to 2 pm. This time, I prayed with bhava throughout as my mentor had asked me to and this was satisfying. My sister was flabbergasted, when the iyer blessed my bro with seegram vivaham prapthirasthu, my sis with adhi seegram vivaham prapthirasthu and me with udyogam prapthirasthu, since i looked relatively younger amongst the three.

After taking rest and changing into dry clothes around 3:30 pm, we again wore our morning wet clothes and went for the cleansing chill bucket shower of the usual 22 teerthas. Our police escort had instructed our teertha water handler, so we had a quick and proper teertha water cleansing at a lesser rate accompanied by elaborate sthala varalaaru. Again after changing into dry clothes, a uniformed lady police and the bomb squad guy escorted us for darshan. We had a proper sitting darshan of pal abhishekam being done for moolavar and special darshan of parvathavardhini ambal without queues and to heart’s content. The bomb squad guy left us when we started our long pradhakshina. We walked in silence, took few snaps and came out and had our first proper meal of the day around 8 pm.

Prathamai Local Sight Seeing on Jan 5th Wednesday

I had been told time and again, not to play in the sea by both bro, sis and the iyer. So after much coaxing and cajoling, I got permission for 1 hour of swimming from 6-7am. I was up from 5 am, but thanks to my sleeping bro, I could come out only around 6:30 am. Even then, a ladies group in the sea, got hold of my hands and forced me to jump with each wave. At last the ladies group let me go, when they finally listened to my protests that I could swim. But again these self appointed iyappa devotees would not let me venture further in the waters. So I was forced to swim in just 9 ft deep water. After changing and having breakfast, we waited for the sudden burst of rain to subside and the police arranged cab to arrive.

Back to Ramanathapuram – Thirupulani – Uttarkosamangai.

Since, amavasya was ending around 2 pm, we could not see these Ramanad places on 4th morning. Our first stop was Thirupulani. 2 buses load of melmaruvathur sakthi red ladies marred our darshan there. It was pretty dark even in the moolavar sannithi. We were glad to escape from there. However, the vehicle steering wheel oil tank got damaged in a road pothole and diesel was leaking profusely. We reached just in time for the uccha kaal pooja in Uttarakosamangai temple. Again, men in uniform ensured, we had proper darshan and pal abhishekam of spadika linga in the emerald nataraj sannidhi. There were fishes in the kulam, but we had kept the tiny chappathi bits in car itself.

Returning to Rameshwaram

We stopped by a lotus pond on the way and took few snaps. Our first stop was floating stones, where we spent some time feeding the red tailed black fishes with chappathi bits and pori. We then went to Ramar padham, where many white necked bald eagles were soaring high. I was seized with an urge to scale the DD2 tower nearby. We cut short dhanushkodi and kothandaramar trip, since I was exhausted. Still we paid the full amount since the driver had incurred repair expenses.

We took snaps in the same places where we three kids had posed 20 years earlier for memory’s sake. Our courteous police guy whose native was Srivaikuntam, was talkative during return trip to station. He was there around 10 pm for our Varanasi express at 10:40 pm. He told us, how a 70 year old granny had drowned while doing amavasya shraadh in dhanushkodi and told it was good that we cancelled dhanushkodi trip where water levels had suddenly risen. He also told us that he could have arranged the room for free. I have no issues paying the proper amount. In-fact in thiruvannamalai, we paid five times the normal room rent on poornima days. The police guy said, that he had been in the same station from 84 when Indira Gandhi was shot dead. He had arranged his “doing duty” in Rameshwaram, even if his salary accounting was done in Chennai.

I told him, that just few minutes before we stopped in Pamban, a guy had jumped off the bridge and our frivolous driver stated that we had missed the sight. A day earlier, folks had stopped a 30ish lady from jumping off the bridge. Our police guy, went on to add his stories - about the number of dead bodies in sea reducing from 80s and 90s, when explosives were used for fishing and local fights ensued. He described bloated bodies, where watches would be hidden inside the swollen hand. He said, they would dig pits and bury the bodies together so that 2 months of unnecessary investigation time could be saved.

I planned not to sleep right away so that I could sit by the coach steps and watch the sea water over pamban bridge. The train was right in the middle of the bridge when thoughts about the guy who had jumped off the bridge just that afternoon came to my mind. My brother was furious that I sat by the compartment steps over sea, when the sea wind was quite forceful.

Miscellaneous
Suddenly all my police encounters reeled in my mind. I was still lying in CMC in 1999, when chithappa’s police acquaintances used to visit me and play brainvita goli gundu games. The next time Subramaniapuram police (my Kumbakonam Fine Arts college, painting mentor Ezhil anna’s chithappa) came home and we had just wheat dosas to offer them. Next, it was my college mate’s police dad who was my lending library. He had all three Quran, Bible and Gita. I borrowed many books from him, including the ones on Indira Gandhi assassination which listed the minute details of the number of bullets that hit her various body parts illustrated in pictures, Sri Lankan operations by Indian Police, Bachendri Pal’s Himalayan ascent, Third World War amongst others authored by men in uniform.

Another college mate whose dad was a Edamalaipattipudhur police was exact opposite and a typical villain police indulging in everything unmentionable. It was yet another Chithappa’s police acquaintance, who gave me “An autobiography of a Yogi.” Another Thiruvannamalai police lent me 100 Rupees when I lost sight of mom during one pournami girivalam without purse or mobile in my hand. In fact, I had the misfortune of learning my life’s most excruciatingly painful lesson from a recently promoted DIG during my difficult Surya maha dasa-Shukra antar dasha period. During this period, there was also an Ujjain SI, who became who made me uncomfortable during my brothers convocation trip in IIMI. Another police S~ in the same trip was my compartmentmate escorting a prisoner back to blore who had stranded off near pak border. He helped me alight around midnight and thrust a tea stating, 'achcha timepass hua'!!!

Most of the police I have interacted with are highly spiritual, philosophical, some religious and a few, firm believers in astrology and one even rustically ritualistic. Whatever, if police is accompanying you, one could have a peaceful proper darshan and satisfying pooja, as long as you want in large temples. Wish I could get a vip escort for early morning tulasi pooja in Thirupathi during pongal holidays.