Dhanushkodi

To read this article in Hindi please click on the link at the bottom.
हिंदी में पढ़ने के लिए कृप्या नीचे  दिए हुए लिंक पर क्लिक करें. 

Dhanushkodi, a Ghost City 

West of proposed route ( lower orange line) is Pamban island. Its eastern most side is Dhanushkodi

Once bustling place Dhanushkodi lies in ruins. Before cyclone of 1964 it was connected by train with the main land India. From neighboring Sri Lanka there were lot of interactions- ferry loads of people use to come and go. It was a thriving fishing settlement with its own school, market, temple, church, dharamshala, railway station and hospital.

During our visit to Rameshwaram we decided to go to Dhanushkodi.

We were to start at 6 A M. from our very good TTDC hotel near the Ramnath Temple. We were ready by 6 and waited for phone call from hotel reception to inform us when the jeep, that was to take us to Dhanushkoti, came. After 6:10 I decided to call my self. "Yes" I was informed, "The jeep is here. Are you ready?" It turned out the driver had brought the jeep at 5:30 it self. But got confused with our room number. They had already disturbed 2 other rooms :-) and hence decided not try calling any more. We started at 6:15. Jeep was a unique specimen, could be difficult to find another piece like that and running!. It looked broken down and rickety.

 After about 16-17 kms we reached Dhanushkodi. it meant end of road as we were entering a so called ghost city. Now there was only sand every where and our vehicle had to go on sandy tracks. That's why the jeep. If one goes by car or auto ricksha, it would be necessary to transfer to a 4 wheel drive vehicle that is available there at Rs.150 per passenger. We had gone in the morning at low tide time. The jeep waded and splashed across many small and big accumulated water puddles left from earlier high tide. The tracks were very very rough. Many a times it felt as if  the jeep would overturn.The driver was unfazed. He was confident as probably he does the same route a number of times every day. On the way he pointed out to us the ruins of railway station, railway quarters, a church and railway tracks. A bustling thriving city blown away in 1964 cyclone! I could only imagine the ferocious fury cyclone would have lashed and the untold misery to the victims. Life’s irony was obvious. Even terrible misery becomes tourist attraction for us! Now in front of us was the Bay of Bengal, calm and placid. Thinking I was standing on the tip of one of India's Southern most land, was very exciting and filled me with great patriotic fervour. Of course I have earlier been to KanyaKumari and Vivekananda Rock that are the southern most part of India's main land mass. On the other side of the church remains was Indian Ocean, claimed our driver cum guide.

 We visited a small temple in the area where a floating stone is displayed in a tank. According to

mythology Sri Ram had used rocks to build  a bridge to cross over to Sri Lanka.  The "stone" was indeed floating. But of course I couldn't  be sure if it was really a stone or stone look alike made up of some other material.

There was a small shop run by a middle aged man selling things from the sea. Dolls and bracelets made of shells, strings made up of corral,

Conches that he claimed were real. For that matter every thing he claimed was genuine from the sea. I had no way to check its veracity but still I bought a few things without bargaining. While taking out the money from purse I was in a  mind to pay him some extra. I was thinking he couldn't be making much from that shop depending solely on the tourists. But before I could offer him , he said that he would charge Rs 50/ less as we were his first customers of the day. “Bohni time”! My guess-he might have inflated some prices expecting us to bargain. Any way we accepted his discount graciously. Saluting the big heart of our country's not so well off people. I decided not to offer him money and there by insult his self respect.

When we turned towards our jeep, we found an elderly lady, in a nice sari, standing near by-one of a few families resettled there after the cyclone ravage. She wanted a lift to the nearest bus stop. As it was Good Friday and she was on her way to a church. We took her in. Sitting across each other at the back of the jeep we exchanged lots of, what, no gossips, smiles. She spoke only Tamil that I didn't at all.

Pamban Bridge

The 2 km long Pamban bridge, only bridge over sea in India till recently Bandra Worli link came up, would have been nothing short of miracle more than 100 years ago in 1914. In the middle section its cantilever Bridge. 2 of its centre segments open up when a ship or big boat has to pass underneath it. For a long time it was done manually-2teams of 6 each use to lift  extremely heavy weight with levers…..I came across a horrible story while doing some research before actually going to Rameshwaram and there by seeing and actually crossing the bridge., .the story about a weeping man and his statue at the entrance to the bridge is so heart wrenching (and heartless of whoever wrote it!) that I was forced to check its veracity on snopes. Thank God, the story turned out to be totally false and baseless. Also now lifting of the bridge is no longer done manually.

A new road bridge has been added in 1988 and both are generally referred as Pamban Bridge.  This is the only surface link between mainland India and Pamban island that has one of the 4 -char dham- sacred temples. The island is full of mythological references of Ramayan.https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3853449129989368819#editor/target=post;postID=7652012660665833677;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=1;src=link