After a lot of re-scheduling I decided to take my parents to Rameswaram and Madurai for short religious tour. We booked Tuticorin Exp. from Bangalore and reached Madurai early morning. Now we were in two minds, to visit Madurai or to head for Rameswaram and checkout Madurai on our way back. Now, Mr. Pandi, an official railway taxi driver, solved our problem. Infact we were disappointed that TTDC (Tamilnadu tourism dept) office at the station could not be of much help. Mr. Pandi offered us a taxi package for Rs 2,200 for 9 AM to 3PM (next day) drive to Rameswaram with a drop back at Madurai. It worked fine for our pocket and our journey started.
Drive in Mr. Pandi's 1970s ambassdor was fast (for an ambi) but peaceful. He stopped at a local hotel in Madurai for breakfast and we had some good idly-vadas. The sambhar in Madurai was different from the one I have in Bangalore, though as a northy I'm not an expert. The best part of our drive was the break at the Indra Gandhi Bridge. Every visitor ought to stay and see the scenic view, the narrow rail bridge and the vast ocean on either side.We reached Rameswaram in the afternoon and check-in at Sarvana hotel. The rate was Rs 815 per day for an AC room, which was on the higher side for Rameswaram. The town has many economical lodges and dharm-shalas, but for comfortable stay my best pick is 'Goswami Guest House (also know as Goswami Madam)', a beautiful hotel which has all possible room combinations. Evening we spend some time in 'Goswami' and listened to some bhajans. The right atmosphere for a religious visit. I assure you that I won't get a commission from them ;-) For food, there are hordes of Rajasthani and Gujrati food joints. They serve home made food for Rs 35 - 50 per meal. My best pick is the Gujrati Bhojnayala (restaurant) in Gujrat Bhawan midway from the east gopuram of the temple and the sea shore.
Now back to my trip; the 1st day we checked a few temples in the vicinity. With all due respect to other places, I liked the Hanuman mandir. It has floating stones which are claimed to be used for the Ram Sethu. People can also buy them for puja, ranging from Rs 5 for a small one to Rs 1000 for a bigger one. It's bargaining everywhere ! Towards the evening, around 6 PM, we went to the main Rameswaram temple (Timings: 4AM-1PM and 4PM - 8:30PM). The massive temple is 865 ft long and 657 ft wide. The temple has 1200 pillars ! Total walkable distance is in temple's 3 corridors is greater than 1 km !To study the complete architecture it is worth buying a guide book. (My numbers also from a book :-) After visiting the main shirne, Ramlingam - The lingam done by Sita, we visited Viswalingam - The lingam brought by Hanuman. Friday evening had a special puja and we sat for the Aarti in the Parvathi's shrine. The next day we re-visited the temple early morning, 5 AM, for Mani darshan. Mani, is a glass like lingam given by Adi Shankrachrya as per a local guide. This darshan, ironically is done without taking a bath between 5AM - 6 AM. after the mani darshan came the most interesting part, the snan (bath). As per the belief all visitors are 1st supposed to take a dip in ocean and then in the 22 famous theerthams (the holy well). Taking a bath in all these theerthams purify the body as well as mind. I still need to attest this ! Now again comes the bargaining part: Rs 7 is the official entry rate per person for theerthams but you know it doesn't work that way ;-) So, we finally settled for Rs 2 per theertham per person which made it Rs 51 per person. Now, I think we got a good deal, atleast feeling so makes me happy :-) I believe you can't escape this 'pay' option else you need to carry your own bucket ! After the bath we finally went for another round of darshan. You can offer abhishek and do other pujas for various prices (Rs 250 onwards) but we choose against it. We entered at 5:30 AM and finally left at 8:00 AM. After all this we had some good Gujrati theplas at our favourite Gujrati Bhojnayal.
Now Mr. Pandi drove us back to Madurai. Even in the month of Dec Madurai was scorching hot. Due to the temperature we limited our Madurai sight seeing to Thirumalya Nayak palace and the famous Meenakshi Temple (Timing: 6AM - 12:30PM and 4PM-9PM). The palace visit was a fiasco, when we compared this to the Mysore palace. May be, it would look better during the light-and-sound program which is temperorily discontinued. We thanked and parted way with Mr. Pandi. We deposited our luggage in the cloak room and walked to the Meenakashi temple when it opened at 4 PM and had a nice darshan and aarti of the Meenkshi and the Shiva deity. Again, I would suggest buying a guide book from the market in the temple corridors. It is worth a read to assimlate the history of the 1000 year old temple. You can also check out the sari emporiums for the traditional sarees, but I could somehow divert my wife's attention. ( I won't disclose the tricks for those ;-)I also tried the famous Madurai 'halwa' just opposite the Madurai railway staion. While at the station I could see the happiness on my mother's face when we were discussing about the temples. I felt very satisfied and finally dozzed off after boarding the 7:45 PM Mysore express to Bangalore.
