In my whole life it is the most challenging and unique travel experience . It was totally unplanned and a instant decision. At that time I was studying my MBA in NIT trichy . It was 2015 and I was 26 yrs old . On that day I have a presentation in the class about some topic . I was not a tall prepared and that day I become the part of the joke for being worse presenter on that class . That day I was very disturbed . After the class I come to the Hostel and just go towards the Trichy city . Mostly when I was disturbed I went to the Rock fort Temple in the heart of the city near chatram bus stand . It was a ganesh temple just situated in the top of the hill . From here you can see the whole trichy city , Sri rangam temple , Kavery river and the roads toward my college .
Today I don’t know why I reached to the Railway station . At that moment there is a train coming for the Rameshwaram . I can’t remember from where it was coming but it was a mail . The time was like 5 : 30 in the evening . I have not informed anyone in my hostel . Instantly I planned to travel to Rameshwaram . I just went to the ticket counter and a book a general ticket for the Rameshwaram . It was very cheap and After 15 minutes train come in the platform. I might be on the first coach on the train . As the train was Late so it left the station without further delay. It is 271 km from trichy to Rameshwaram . Now slowly the outside become dark and train running in it’s pace.
After sometime my mother calls me and I tell her that I am going for Rameshwaram trip . Nobody knows except my family that I am going to Rameshwaram . Firstly in the train there was few people but around 8 in the night there was only 2-3 person left in my rail coach . I can remember today was full moon and around 11 in the night train comes near to the Pamban Bridge and halts there for Half an hour might be there was signalling issues. It was wonderful scenery in the moon Light . You can hear the sound of sea and in front is the Bridge and sea . Today the wind was blowing fast and rainning a bit . The situation is totally pleasant .
After sometime train starts and go through the pamban Bridge . It is a low height rail Bridge and Both side of the Bridge is sea . You can hear the roar of sea and see the beautiful moon and stars in the night sky . It was like you are floating through the sea and besides the pillar and middle of the sea you find Big rocks . When the wave struck with this big rock making this loud sound . Train is moving very slow in the Bridge . Inside the Bridge there is a special section where it can be folded when some ship passes through it . It takes around 10-15 minutes to pass the bridge . It was one of the wonderful times in my life and this stays in the memory for lifetime .
Around 12 in the night train reaches to the Rameshwaram station . As I am a student So I don’t have earning and I just travel with my pocket money . So I make the savings most to plan for the next trip . I see in the waiting room lots of Pilgrims are sleeping in the floor by just spreading the cloths or woolen cloth in the floor . So I just go there and sleep in between them .
Around 3:30 in the morning I wake up . As I saw people are walking I also start my journey toward Rameshwaram temple . It might be 2-3 km from the station . In the road I drink tea . After reaching there I know that temple will open around 7-8 in the morning . So I reach to the nearby Beach . Here main occupation of the people is fishing . You can get sea food very cheap . Here is lots of Bengali restaurant selling different fish items .
In the beach there was too much people . Some are going through Mundan(shaving your head hair) , some worshiping for their older generation with priest . Prist will spell the secret script for organizing the religious ceremony . People all over the India came here to submit their parents ashes to the secret water in Rameshwaram . The Beach is very dirty as they throw the remaining material in the sea after worship . In the meantime sunrise happens . It was very nice . Then I go near to the temple and keep my bags there and eat a dosa and stand in the line of the temple entrance .
Around 7 : 30 in the Morning I entered the temple . It was one of the 12 Jyotir Linga in India and 1 dham of Char Dham . Accordingly to the mythology this waters are very holy . It is that place Where Bhagawan Ram worshiped Shiva after the fight against Ravana to recover from the sin of fight . It is a huge temple . It has the longest corridor in the world . At first there were some weal from there people are taken water and make bath . This weals water are secret according to their belief and sweet water . After that there is big pond like weal where there is lots of stairs to reach to the water .
After finishing the temple travel I made lunch in a local restaurant. After that just gone through the local Market and went to sea beach . As it was too hot in the Beach so I travel toward local markets and around 4 in the evening I take bus towards Trichy . Now I cross the Gulf of Mannar(The water body between the Mainland india and the Rameshwaram island ) by bus . It is a new bridge and lots of higher from the sea level . From here you can not see sea well . The Bus reached Trichy around 3 in the morning and I reached my college around 5 in the morning .
