Out of all the places I have traveled Pamban Island remains my favorite for three reason. No. 1 for the obvious reason it has water and No.2 it also has religious importance and the God worshiped here is Lord Shiva, one of the most fascinating and my favorite character in the Hindu mythology.
Just to give you a brief about the history, its acclaimed to be the place from where Lord Rama summoned upon Lord Shiva to help him cross the ocean to free his beloved wife Sita from Ravan who had captivated her in Lanka. God Shiva gave a boon to Shri Rama stating that he could build a bridge to cross over to Lanka using rocks and reside here with the name Rameshwarnath. All that he had to do was write JAI SHRI RAM on the rocks and the rocks would start floating. This bridge could be used by him and his VanarSena(Army of Monkeys) to cross the sea and free Sita from Ravan’s Fortress.
There are also 22 wells in this place, and it is said, the wells have the water of 22 rivers flowing in India and if we take a dip in these wells all our sins would be washed away. If that was true, I did not want to miss an opportunity to wash all my sins away. So, I headed to this place and was accompanied by one of my distant relatives Menaga Akka who could help me with the local dialect and also guide me with the whole procedure.
Since I had decided to go local and travel in public transport, we took a bus to Rameshwaram. Reached the place around 11:45 PM. Spoke to one of the localities there and got ourselves accommodation for the night. Menaga Akka informed me that sooner we go the earlier we could finish our dip in holy wells and get Rameshwarnath’s darshan and head to see the places around. So, we got up around 5 in the morning and headed to take a dip in the sea from where our journey of taking a dip in the holy water starts.
What surprised me was the water was shallow and there were no waves whatsoever. And the place was filled with thousands of people. We took our dip and headed towards the wells to where the que was huge. With the slow-moving line of people,it took about couple of hours to finish our dip in all the river. Although there’s separate changing places for men and women in the temple premises, I decided to change in our room. Hence headed back to our rooms freshened up and went back to the temple for darshan.
Post out Darshan of God, we had our quick bite and with the help of cops we were able to bargain with an auto driver who took us on the tour of the place. One of them was a much awaited place Rama Setu. Unlike other places, you don’t get to travel in two wheelers to this place. I was a bit surprised and couldn’t make out the reason, however decided to go with the flow as I could not wait longer to see the Rama setu. We actually have to across a check post of police officers who inspect the all the vehicle to make sure the sanity of the place is preserved and off course to protect us. As we headed further the place looked like a desert with white sand on both the sides of the roads with no sign of water. The Auto driver started giving brief of place and how this place was affected by Tsunami.
As we headed a little further it got breezy and I started to feel pricks all over my face and hand and I could not understand what was happening. I peeped out of the auto to look if it had started raining on a bright day with very minimal clouds. No it wasn’t raining. Couple of minutes further,I could not take the pricks anymore and realized it was the sand which was flying due to the heavy wind. Menaga akka had neatly rolled herself up with her saree and I hid my face under my bag and hand, only allowing a small opening from where I could see around. By now the wind was quite heavy and I could notice the sandbags on one side of the road to restrict the wind and sand flowing from one side to another and my hands and the top of the bag were filled with sand. From small opening I had for myself to look out allowed me to see the sea to one side and the dry land to the other side. The Rickshaw driver explained to us stating during Monsoon the entire place gets filled with water due to the heavy downpour and opens up once the water level comes down. We were fortunate enough to go up to the end of the road.
I was mesmerized by the sight of the place. It seemed like a different world altogether. Crystal clear water, shallow sea along with waves to one side and calm deep water to the otherside was simply breathtaking. In between this is a narrow path which lead into the sea. This place is said to be the closet to Srilanka. And also said, most of the path on the bridge could be covered by foot. However, we weren’t allowed towards the narrow path which lead into the sea. As they had rope barricades a few meters ahead of the parking place and was guarded by cops. People who wished to play in the water could play towards the side where there were waves. To the other side was a strictly no no affair even to get down on the sand.
I did dare of crossing the rope fence which was put as the max limit. However, was asked to step back by the cops. To my advantage there was a small boat tied to the shore, and I told them I was just going to take a pic with the boat which was a little ahead of the barricade. Till I got back the cops had their eyes glued towards me to make sure I don’t go further than the boat.
As I got back I had an ear full from Menaga Akka and the a stare from the auto driver which said - if I was on a self-harming mission, I should not have taken his auto. Nothing of it hardly registered my mind as I was moved into my reverie of imagination while I sat on the sand watching people play in the sea. After a while I was brought back to this world by Menaga Akka who said the auto driver was looking for us as we had to head to other places. I would have loved to skip the Rama and Lakshmana temples to where the driver was about to take us and rather would have stayed back and taken the bus(yes there is Govt. shuttle available to this place) back to the town. I could not do so, in the interest of showing my beloved innocent akka the darshan of the temples we headed back.
Even though we visited the above said temple I wasn’t very keen in going inside the temples and rather preferred staying out and being amongst the nature. A point to be noted was that only near these temples there were trees and monkies and no where else on this side of the temple for the entire length of the road. Which also happens to the side filled with sand, no water or waves or deep water. I did try to venture into the sand with the hope of finding water and this time I myself returned without going far as it was late in the noon and it was very hot.
We reached our room back washed out the sand and relaxed for a while as we had a late-night train to catch for our next destination. No.3 why this trip is memorable to me is because I got an opportunity to travel in the unreserved compartment because our reservations didn’t get confirmed till the end.
