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.