TRANQUEBAR- INVADED BY DUTCH, NOT KNOWN TO INDIANS

I took a bus that connects Mayiladuthurai and Karaikal to reach a destination that is supposed to be the first invaded place in India. Going through the narrow roads with many bends, finally the bus dropped me at Tranquebar or Tharangambadi. 

Dutch invaded and ruled for some couple of years. Ove Gedde Dutch Naval Commander signed a treaty with Raghunatha Nayak, the then king of Thanjavur to carry on trade and build a fort.  When I got down, I experienced the smell of fish and some yards ahead of the bus stop, I saw backwaters. I asked a person walking through that way, “How should I go to the fort”? He said, “This way” and showed his finger towards the right. I walked through that way for some distance. After 2 minutes walk, I saw an old arch completely ruined. The whole place looked like a dutch colony. A school meant for girls and a residential school were on the way and walls of the school filled with the verses of bible. 

Reading it through-out the way, I saw the fort finally. A person sitting in the entrance charged me 5 rupees for entry. Nothing different, a place covered with walls on four sides. The ground floor had prisons, warehouses to store weapons, food etc. Then I went upstairs, to see the governor’s office that was kept as a museum. 

It had photos of Governor’s Bungalow, Fort, Ove Gedde, Masilamaninathar Temple that is situated near the shore and some vessels used by people those days. Weapons used by Dutch people, some stories of war were also displayed.

Then I thought of visiting Masilamaninathar Temple in the shore. But unlikely, renovation works were going on. Hence I was not able to go inside. Nothing else than the fort and temple, I was a bit bored. So I walked down the streets to find out something else and spend some more time. 

The lane opposite fort exposed me to another tiny attraction. It was a private museum that had sea shells and some things used by the people of olden days. Even though nothing great, it was good enough and free entry.

Little bit of attractions, nothing great. But one thing about Tranquebar is that it is the first invaded place in our country. Hence that adds some justice to traverse some different destinations that has not been known to many.

  

Tranquebar is well connected by road. Any bus that goes to Karaikal and surrounding places would land you here. Mayiladuthurai is the nearest railway station.

At The Southern Most Tip Of India--Kanyakumari

          It was a cool morning breeze with heavy winds lashing out. Wind mills on either side of the roads, some revolving and some idle, marked our journey to the southern most tip of India, Kanyakumari. We were in a highway that connected Madurai and Kanyakumari. The end of the high was the southern boundary of India.

          Accommodation is a major concern in this place, to get a decent, pleasant stay we opted to go to Vivekanandapuram, run by Vivekananda Kendra. This place could be identified by a gigantic arch and wonderful  Vivekananda's picture. it  A serene environment, surrounded by trees on either side and walls with the famous quotes of Swami Vivekananda, separate building blocks with the names of Holy Places.

         We booked a 2 bedroom deluxe room for which, we were charged Rs.300. The rooms were big, calm and neat.. After bath and breakfast, we left to Kanyakumari beach. It should be 9 O' clock in the morning. The beach here was so different. It was surrounded by rocks, three different types of sand with red colour, black and normal beach sand. There were islets, coral reefs and lose beach sand. Then we walked across the streets surrounding the Kanyakumari Amman Temple. We made  our plan to visit the temple by evening.

           First we took the ferry from the shore and reached the rock memorial. While coming on the boat, we saw a person explaining the story behind the rock memorial. He said, “It was a day when Vivekananda visited Kanyakumari. He saw this islet and wished to go for it. He asked the boatman and he expected some bugs to be paid. Vivekananda didn’t have money to pay him. So he decided to swim across. He prayed goddess Kanyakumari, swam across the sea and reached the islet. Then he sat and meditated for some time and Goddess Kanyakumari came in front of him as a reward for his meditation”. I  wish I could swim  across. After  10-20 minutes boat ride, we reached the islet. It was large with concrete surfacing, at one end we found a small shrine of goddess Kanyakumari and the other end was the huge meditation hall. The moment we entered, we were impressed by the divinity and silence. None, dared to talk louder and to do something mean. Then we saw, the foot prints of goddess Kanyakumari, very well protected with glass panels.

       we spent sometime in that place, from every side we were  surrounded by the ocean.It was quite difficult for us to detach our selves from that place and move, but inevitably we need to do it,since the next day, we were planning to go to  Padmanabhapuram Palace and other surrounding places.

     Padmanabhapuram Palace just looked like a large bungalow. It was lunch time,we did not like to idle out our time ,our inquisitiveness led us to a new destination with a new story ,before that we wanted to venture in the shops near by to find what was quite novel to be preserved as a souvenir.

     There was a shop that sold  lamps made of sand, bronze and wooden pens etc.A girl working in that shop welcomed us and showed a lamp made of mud. At the bottom there was a small hole. The girl poured some water through it and said, “See sir, you can pour oil in this way for this lamp. It won’t spill and you can put a wig  and light the lamp. What was the cost, I asked. It casted around 30 rupees sir, she replied. I bought it with out bargain since it was so beautiful.  

Later when we came-out, time seemed to be lethargic for us. Surfing our minds to what to do next, a sign board grabbed our attention. It said, “Udayagiri Fort, 3 KM”. We enquired about that place to the local people. They said, it has the Cemetery of Dutch naval commander, Eustachius De Lannoy who later worked for the Travancore Army.

We drove vehicle to visit that place. By travelling through some narrow streets, we reached the fort. It was a sanctuary for Deer protected by the forest department. It was a typical biodiversity park.

After walking a long distance across the place, we found the cemetery of De Lannoy and his family. A board said, it has the cemetery of Dutch naval commander and his family. It was a typical cemetery.

Then we walked ahead  to find our way-out. Meanwhile, we found a Burma Bridge and a Tree House. To walk on the Burma Bridge, the ticket would be Rs.5 and into the Tree house Rs.25. I opted to go on both.

The Burma bridge is  made of bamboo wood and ropes. You have to be careful in walking in this. If you don’t place your leg on the centre point, it would drop you down. We fell twice or thrice and reached the other end by that rope. Then we went to the Tree house.

It was also made of bamboo and a little bit older one surrounded with pest. But still we went through it, wanting to explore how it would be. It was adventurous and scary. We doubted that we fall down along with the Tree House. So to avoid risk, we came down and left the place.

Then when we cam back to Padmanabhapuram Palace, the counter opened and started issuing tickets for entry. Entry ticket was Rs.25 for one person. We walked in with the ticket. The security checked it and sent us in.

The palace was in typical Kerala architecture. The first place that we saw was the large dining hall which is used to serve food for more than 2000 people a day.  Then came the hall meant to preserve the army weapons. The whole palace looked like a large south Indian house. We kept on roaming around the place for sometime. We saw the Kings bedroom, which was large, spacious and a wooden cot with hefty decorations.

A sign board kept near the cot said that it was made of several herbal and medicinal trees. I thought, why should a single person enjoy all these privileges? But there was no time to further think on it. So, we kept moving. A huge portrait showed a real picture of the war lost by Dutch and surrendering to Marthanda Verma. We’ve heard of India losing to British and French in our history lessons. But I felt proud of this man for defeating external forces entering our country. Then I thought, he definitely deserves a specially made cot.

After visiting the nook and corner of the palace, we returned to Kanyakumari to go ahead with our evening schedule of visiting the temple as planned before. So after a coffee and little bit of snacking, we went there. Before we entered the temple, the security guard warned us to remove our shirts. As it is a common thing in temples of Kerala and Kanyakumari. With a little bit of fussing, all the men in our team removed it.

The temple was heavily  crowded that day. After moving slowly in a Q, we saw the goddess. Well decorated with flowers, a red colour saree and jewels. Her nose shined well, with a special type of ornament. One person said that it is a diamond. Whatever it is, she looks divine and our duty is to pray her. Not finding out whether her ornaments are made of diamond or gold.

After that, we started surfing the streets. There were lot of Punjabi, rajasthani, gujarati and many other dhabas of other states. As many people all over the country visit this place, we can find lot of dhabas like these.

With this, we decided to pack our bags back home. To reach Chennai before it gets darker, we wished to start by 7 o’ clock next day morning. The sun rose, we took bath, had breakfast and coffee, vacated our room and we were ready to return home. The same place where we saw Indian land cover ending, was the place where we began our next journey.

KODAIKANAL- LOST BEAUTY

A pleasant morning with fog making a blurred vision on the road, calm and serene vegetation surrounded by trees, hair pin bends making the roads unstable. We were on the way to one of the famous hill stations of south India, kodaikanal. Earlier we were advised to take up a cab from either Madurai or dindigul to have an easy going. So we took a train from Chennai to reach Madurai and from there we booked a cab to kodaikanal.

On our way through the hills, the plains represented the path of a dry river with a dam on it. It was the manjal river. The people say it creates flood and havoc during the monsoon and remains dry in summer. It had a waterfall too. This seemed to be like a tail of the rat. And surprisingly it is named with the same context.

Three hours of journey ensures reaching the destination known for holiday visits. It began gaining momentum in the British period. The first and the best route for kodaikanal is from Batlagundu. There is another gateway through palani which connects Bangalore, Coimbatore and major cities and towns. Perumal malai is the meeting junction of all the gateways. Kodaikanal welcomed us with the silver cascade waterfall which has its source from kodaikanal main lake.

It was on-season, none of the rooms in  hotels were ready to accommodate us. As it was occupied by someone else. Finally a resort near the museum welcomed us with a room. Finishing our morning bath and breakfast, we began our explorations along with a local guy to guide us on the way. Our exploration first took us to the kurinji andavar temple (a famous murugan temple). We thought the path to this place will be easy to go. Unfortunately it was straight opposite. Steep road with bends for every 100 yards was how we climbed the hill with our vehicle and at one point of time the vehicle stood refusing climb more and more. After a minor repair, it said yes. Finally we reached our first destination. Some of them said it should be a big temple with a huge statue of the lord. But the case was quite different. A small temple with a tiny statue of the lord decorated with flowers and other holy stuffs, made us feel like staying in heaven. Tiny road side shops outside the temple sold key chains and other wooden ornaments.

Then the local guy suggested for a ride around the Kodaikanal Lake. Some of our team chose to go for boating and some of us wished for a cycle sporting. A round around the lake would consume 45 minutes and we made three to four rounds, which was a great fun for us.

We postponed our next set of explorations to day 2. Post lunch we were roaming around the streets near the bus stand and the main market. Fresh carrots and vegetables, chocolates in n number of shops, spices etc were the main attractions of the market. The person along with us suggested to buy chocolates and other stuffs right here. Other shops outside this place do not have quality stuffs and they cost a lot, he said. Bed sheets made of wool was also a main attraction of the market. A person along with us got amazed at the chocolates made of white cocoa.

Day 2, we decided to explore the attractions in the periphery of kodaikanal. Our first thing was guna caves. It was named after the movie guna enacted by kamal Hassan. This cave was chosen to shot the movie. From that time on, it gained the momentum as an important tourist attraction. The next attraction where we visited was pillar rocks. The opposite hill had a rocks structured like built-in pillars. Other than these two attractions there were suicide point, parks, lakes etc. the similar setup of these places were boring for us. Finally post lunch time, we visited the museum near our resort. A beautiful tiny building, a less than 1000 square feet room with details of plant, animal etc species of shola forest were found. By the evening we packed our bags and left kodaikanal.     

Some years back it seemed to be wonderful with a pleasant climatic condition, less number of people and things. But now kodaikanal is changing its face as a tourist destination to a city life. Hence it is polluted and pre-occupied with people. It is no longer a better choice for vacation.    

POINT CALIMERE SANCTUARY- THE UNKNOWN DESTINATION

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A beautiful morning with a sunrise welcomed us when we were on the way to point calimere sanctuary at kodikarai, nagapattinam district. We were advised to take up the left from velankanni shrine by an auto driver. The vegetation in the roads reduced time after time, the broadness of the road shrinked and we were surrounded by water and wet lands on the either side. The roads went even more rugged. Finally after a 40 minutes drive, we found an arch “point calimere sanctuary- kodikarai”. A nearby sign board warned us to drive slowly as the deers and other herbivores crossed the roads. On the way we found a shrine like spot with steps. When we climbed on it, the foot prints of lord Rama was embossed in the stone. The locals say, this particular place has its significance in Ramayana. Before going to rameshwaram, the team of lord Rama planned to build the bridge connecting to Sri Lanka from here. Due to the distance and geographical location it was not suitable to build a bridge from here.

Kodikarai point calimere sanctuary is a hot spot of black bucks. IT was declared as a sanctuary in the year 1967 for the sake of conserving the black buck population. Black bucks are a type of antelopes. Other than that spotted deer, wild dog, wild boar, pony horse and bonnet macaque’s share their space in this sanctuary. There are no carnivorous animals in this sanctuary. Wild dog is the only predator. The workers in the forest department guest house welcomed us warmly and allocated rooms for us. Being a government based guest house, I thought it would not be neat and clean. But the fact was quite different. After a bath and breakfast, we took our ride to the sanctuary with lunch packed up. It should be some where between 11.30 am when we left for the sanctuary. It exactly took 10-20 minutes to reach the sanctuary.  We sited a group of scared male black bucks, gazing around. Usually the male black bucks are black and white in colour and the female looks brown in colour. Snakes also reside in the sanctuary and we found fragrant screw pine frequently. We also spotted wild boar, spotted deer, bonnet macaque and other common animals too.

We sat down for lunch in the anti-poaching squad tents and enjoyed our meal. It should’ve been 2 pm when we started our next half of visit. Luckily we spotted a wild dog chasing a black buck. After some long time we reached a light house that is 50 years old and built by the British. The evening time witnessed heavy winds lashing at us. Finally we saw some pony horses sitting aside and gazing around. They ran away once they saw us.  Finally we reached the sea shore. We stood at the meeting point of Bay of Bengal and Palk Strait. With that our day 1 trip into the sanctuary came to an end.

Day 2 we planned for bird watching.  It should be 7 am when we reached the sanctuary. It was completely a wet land. The first bird that we spotted was brahmni kites and later we saw pelicans, little egret, flamingo and other such birds. Pelicans, little egrets, flamingos are migratory birds that come from other countries. There is a chemical refinery near the wet lands. It pollutes the wet lands from time to time. The helper was so active running from one place to another spotting out the birds with his binocular. We found something that was unusual. It was blue coloured and its hands and legs looked cream in colour. When the helper yelled, there is a bird. The bird raised and proved that it’s a human. It was a woman catching fishes in the back waters.  That morning seemed to be quite pleasant with the presence of beautiful birds.

Then that same day afternoon we visited the MPCA [medicinal plants conservation area]. A person who manages a siddha clinic in that village guided us. He took us to the nook and corner of the place and explained the different set of medicines for all diseases ranging from the major one to the minor. The first herb that we saw was “cithili paalai” it was supposed to be the cure for cancer. Then he showed the leaves of vilva and explained its medicinal values. He further explained the use of other medicinal plants one after the other.

We finished our journey with the MPCA. The next day morning we left the place with all the good things that we saw. It was a memorable journey for us. To get there reach nagapattinam and take up the bus for kodikarai.