Kadaimugam 2013

Should we go or should we cancel? This was the question that was running in my mind on Friday – Nov. 15. By the time the charts were prepared for our 185 Dn Velankanni Express, Ramanan had already announced in all TV Channels that the depression has moved from Sleeper Class to 3AC, upgrading itself from a normal-harmless-usual-Nagapattinam-cyclone to a severe tropical cyclone avatar. As expected, a Govt. holiday was declared in Cuddalore, Nagappattinam and Thiruvarur districts on Nov. 16. This really ‘dampened’ my thoughts of having the trip on.

The departure was 2315 at Egmore. Around 2030 was the critical call taken – a conference call involving all the participants of this year’s edition of the Kadaimugam trip: Anand, Ashok, Appa, Prabhu and Ajay. The typical, “the tour organizer has put forward a motion to retain the trip, those who are in favour say Aye and those who are not say No” was followed by an overwhelming 4-2 in favour of the trip. It was all set.

Platform 4 still had Rockfort berthed in it; we were just in time to see its departure. It was a good pick-up for the 24-coach full load from the loop into A Main line (later learned from Ajay that it was 22950 RPM). Surprisingly, the Kamban/Velankanni Express 175/185 combo was packed as early as 2250 itself into Pf 4. Our power turned out to be 22269 ED – the old and faithful of the 222** series. Being an ordinary Mail/Express train, it was a sedate run all along.

Dilip’s parent’s were kind enough to accommodate us for this time too! When I gave a call to Dilip’s father the day before to check on weather, he mentioned that it was still dry with a cloudy sky. Varuna Bhagavan decided otherwise in a couple of hours! Heavy rains started as soon as we crossed Tambaram and weather updates mentioned that the cyclone will have a landfall the next day evening near Nagaippattinam. Having decided to retain the plan, I did not worry about anything; all I did was getting excited about the travel through the heart, lungs and kidneys of a severe tropical cyclone :)

The overcast sky with heavy rains stopped my plans of walking down the platform to witness the usual loco changing ceremony (Electric to Diesel) at Villupuram Junction. However, the irritating thing was the fact that we were made to wait for 180 Up Mannai Exp to arrive at VM – the section controller has given the go ahead for 180 Up at Serndanur just because we were late by 10 minutes – a costly one block expense. We were waiting from the time when the 176 Up / 186 Up combo departed from the adjacent Pf 4, Mannai Exp arrived with 17835 (now TNP, ex-GOC, the then only Jumbo of GOC) in Pf 3 and started, 118 Up Pandian Exp arrived and started from Pf 1 and upto the point of time when even 183 Dn Uzhavan Exp also arrived at Pf 6!! It was a painful plus interesting wait of some 40 minutes. I remembered crossing 102 Up Boat Mail at MPS while he was in the loop at Panruti and the crossing with the Weekly CAPE-PDY Exp when we pulled into the loop at the next block, Melpattambakkam. I had a brief period of sleep, probably between MBU and CDM. I got up at Chidambaram at 440 to get a look at the majestic gopurams in four directions and a glimpse of the broad river Kollidam – similar to the sight near Srirangam. Finally, after a crawl through the loop line at Sirkali and a sedate run through VDL and ANP, we reached Mayiladuthurai Junction at 5.30 AM, late by 25 mins. What welcomed us was a torrential downpour that did not even allow us to walk through the platform to reach the main concourse. We got a sample of what is going to be in store for us that day.

I had booked a cab through cab4u.in, after seeing their advertisement in Sakthi Vikatan, a month ago. The way they handled the call, the way they tracked it, the service, the tariff – everything was good. I do not have any complaints. The vehicle was a Xylo as we were six of us and we wanted to travel comfortably. The cost charged was 3000/- for a 5.30 AM pick-up to 10 PM drop, any distance, driver batta included trip – worth the expense.

Dinesh, the driver, picked us up and we moved to Dilip’s house in East Sannidhi St, MV. What would normally take 10 minutes in a car, took 30 minutes for us because of rain and the reduced visibility. We refreshed ourselves, dropped our bags, took Dilip’s appa with us to our usual hang out spot in the ‘Laagatam’ bathing ghat in Kaveri River – the North bank. There was no necessity to take a bath to get ourselves drenched, rains did it for us. It was not raining heavily though. Kaveri was running water, unlike the usual stagnant, cleaned up water. It was running full to the brim, and was unusually warm – may be due to the fact that the air was cold. I took a satisfactory ‘kadaimuzhukku’ facing the pravaakam (West), dipping three times inside the flooded river – what an experience it was!

Morning Session:

The tour started after dropping Dilip’s appa back at his home. We went to Mayuranathar temple first. The very sight of an array of Uthsavamurthis in Rishabhavahanams gave us a divine experience altogether. Almost all the temples that we visited on that day were literally empty because of the cyclone alert. Breakfast ritual was completed at Kaliyakudi Mess in Pattamangalam Street. We then went to Indhalur Parimala Ranganathar temple. This ‘huge’ Perumal in reclining posture with 4 arms in VeeraSayanam declaring the fact that Kaveri is superior to Ganga, never fails to entice his bhakthas, right from the days when ThirumangaiAzhwar was made to wait before the gigantic main door for some time, making him impatiently say, “You be with whatever You have, I am going now” before he got a sevai of Him. In our case, it was an entirely different story – it was the other way round. We had so much time to stand in front of Him and have a sevai with nobody to push us out – reason: thunderstorms have started. Lightning strikes were seen within a hundred metres; by the time you realize that you have to close your eyes to protect yourself, there comes a thunderbolt deafening one’s ears. And this natural audio-visual show from the cyclone of the Bay continued for some 30 minutes holding us at bay.

At a point where (we felt!) rains subsided / paused, we took a call to proceed further. We crossed Kaveri again, took the South bank State Highway (North bank State Highway is the erstwhile ‘Rajapattai’ of Cholas connecting their capital, Woraiyur, to their principal Customs port, Poompuhar / Kaviripoompattinam). After driving for an hour, covering some 20 km, we reached the junction we wanted, Thiruvalangadu, where the left turn takes you to Thiruvavaduthurai (Aadheenam fame, note the spelling, this is not Aduthurai). A huge Masilamaneeswarar temple offered us the most wanted ‘warmth’ in its inner prakarams – how divine it was to stand in front of Him, alone, with just the light and heat from the agal lights for company on a rainy day, this experience is beyond words.

After seeing some natural ‘Take Diversion’s in the form of fallen trees along the roads, we managed to reach the main road again to proceed towards Kumbakonam. I was insisting that given the rate at which we get drenched, it is essential that we buy atleast a few Crocins as a just in case. At a point where we were about to cross Arasalar, Anand jumped in and demanded that we go to Suriyanar Koil as he has never been there (Appa demanded Indhalur earlier). It appeared to me that alterations to planned route have become the order of the day.

The cyclonic rainfall never seemed to stop and the 100 metres that we had to manouvre by walk in front of the Suriyanar Koil appeared to be 5 km long. I could not imagine a literally empty SuriyanarKoil on a weekend – it is like asking to believe that there are no unauthorised travelers in reserved coaches of Brindavan Express! We had a peaceful darshan at all the sannadhis in the temple, of course got almost drenched in full.

Next in plan was Thennalakudi (Thiruneelakudi), another demand for a route plan cropped up. The participants gang was almost starting a mutiny and I had to resign to the fact that the trip plan was no longer in my hands. The demand was to go to Sarangapani temple in KMU. I had to nip this request in the bud and announced outright that the plan will be to take the Rajapattai to Thiruvalanchuli via KMU bypass road. I had many failure attempts in the past planning to visit the Kabartheeswarar temple / Swetha Vinayagarsannidhi at Thiruvalanchuli – 1. My first visit to Swamimalai, passing right in front of the temple, rushed away due to the fact that I had to cover Adhanur and Pullamboothangudi divyadesams, 2. My half-a-day quick trip to KMU for Thirukarugavur with Gowrisankar – I rushed into the temple running exactly at 12 noon; was turned down by Him as the nadai was closed for noon, 3. Again a pass through the temple, negotiating Swamimalai, sacrificed to cover Thiruvaikavur. The car was rushing through the torrential rainfall, it was better then, as the winds have slowed down.

Man proposes, God disposes – this old saying applies everywhere… we had probably taken a wrong turn at Koranattukaruppur, ending up in the Ullur road leading to Kumbakonam town! I had dozed off a bit and when I got up, I was welcomed with a familiar scenery of the road from Mahamaham Tank, Uchi PillayarKoil, Nageswaran Koil gopuram and then the Somesar gopuram – Aravamudhan has pulled the gang in!! “Okay!”, I said, “the time is 1120. You guys have 15 minutes for you to cover the temple, have darshan of KomalavalliThayar and SarangapaniPerumal. Let us start at 1135, it will take 15 minutes to cross Darasuram and reach Thiruvalanchuli, so we will be anyway there at 1150.”

We rushed in, the sight of the familiar chariot type sannidhi of Perumal, the gracious smile of KomalavalliThayar, granting us all that we (reasonably) wish – I felt a lot lighter. The main sannidhi was closed for Uchikalam. We had to wait for the same 15 minutes in front of His closed screen. I had to convince myself that I will cover Thiruvalanchuli on the way back from Thirukarugavur. It was not beyond reach… An ‘arpudhamaanasevai” with just 6 of us in front of the Perumal was enthralling. We finally started at 1145, we decided to have lunch at Maami Mess in Swamimalai and proceed to Thirukarugavur. This is the point where the “Kidandhavaaru ezhundhu pesu vaazhi kesaney” decided to bless us with a 100 m sprint.

Thiruvalanchuli temple was open when we went at 1200 exact. I was a bit skeptical, but wanted to give a try – I started running in, leaving all of them behind, “vegamaa vandhaa vango, varaatti pongo”. As I crossed the huuuuugeouter (5^th) prakaram, there appeared a person, who mentioned the darshan timings have got changed, the temple will be open till 1230 and requested me to slow down. I saw him as the Swetha Vinayakar Himself. We had a wonderful darshan at all sannidhis in the temple – my eyes were reluctant to move away from admiring the way the walls of all the prakarams have been built. Absolute brilliance in construction, a thousand years ago! As a factoid, Swetha Vinayakar is made of sea foam (Porifera, remember?).

The gurukkal of the temple mentioned that Thirusathimutram temple will be open till 1230 and Patteeswaram till 1300. They were just 3 km away, so the verdict was “udraa shanmugam pogattum”. We were just in time, 1229 h at Thirusathimutram. The watchman saw us rushing in, informed the gurukkal to wait for an extra minute. We had a wonderful darshan here too. Then took the famous pathway that connected the two temples in that village – the same pathway that the 3 year old Sambandhan took a thousand years ago, under the Muthupandhal (pearl canopy), to be met by Dhenupureeswarar Himself, Who ordered all his Nandhis to move away so that he can enjoy the beauty of the 3 year old baby walking in, singing hymns. We had a darshan of Vishnu Durgai near the North Gopuram and still had 10 minutes for 1300. We decided to continue our sprint to run again via Thiruvalanchuli to Swamimalai.

The 60 steps of Swamimalai that denote the 60 years of Vedic Astrology were covered in a matter of 3 minutes! Had a peaceful darshan of Murugar in the temple.Lunch at Maami mess, a typical Kumbakonam mess where one is expected to carry the plantain leaf and drop in dust bin, after completing the lunch. We then drove to Thirukarugavur, by the time which the rains have come to a jolting halt.Ashok got dropped at Papanasam, as he had plans to go to Tiruchi. The temple was closed for the forenoon session, so we had full two hours in front of us. I had carried a blanket with me, it came in handy at that time – I went to the last seat of the Xylo car, reclined with my blanket on and had a sound sleep till 1545. A rainy day with rains just stopped + a fairly big car (for a tall person like me) with a three-seater to recline + your own bedsheet from home + chill breeze during afternoon + heavy South Indian Thaali meals = ‘swargam’!

Afternoon session:

A halt in rainfall had brought reasonable crowd before 1600. We had a satisfactory darshan in both the sannadhis – Yoothikaavaneswarar (Mullaivananathar) and Garbharakshambigai. Time for another confusion – we knew that the cyclone was set to have a landfall that afternoon near NGT, the eerie slow breeze with a decline in rainfall created the fear in us that we may be travelling right through the eye of the storm (fortunately, we weren’t). The plan was modified to make sure that we reach KMU safely by evening, go to the station and take the evening passenger to MV or buy open tickets and travel in 184 Up Uzhavan Express in which, we had reserved tickets from MV. In a worst case, if these trains are cancelled due to landfall, we planned to take a bus to Tiruchi, stay overnight in Srirangam and take Pallavan the next morning.

We took the road to Papanasam, drove to the ThevaraKoil there – Paalaithurainathar temple. This temple hosts one of the largest paddy granaries in the delta (now in disused condition), well protected by ASI. A peaceful darshan, as was the order of the day, and then we took the bypass (now correctly!!) to reach Kottaiyur near Melakaveri (North border of Kumbakonam town, on the other bank of Kaveri river).Kottaiyur has its name because of the fact that the KoteeswararSwamy who appeared inside a shrub of castor oil seeds. Everyone is aware that a dip in Ganga in the town of Benaras wipes away sins, but as per the sthalapuranam, this temple is the only authority to wash away sins that a person does in Benaras (Kasi). Now, what will happen if a person commits a sin in Kottaiyur? The answer is here, “Kottaiyuril seidha paavam kattaiyodudhaan pogum!”, which means, one will carry those sins all the way to Yama Durbar – no way to wash them off in this material world. The temple was glittering with lights burning castor oil, as it was BharaniDeepam festival on that day.

Time for a snack break… we drove to our favourite mess in KMU, Venkatramana mess near Yanaiadi. We were welcomed with a free serving of delicious ‘Karthigaipori’. After munching a Chappathi, a few pieces of Wheat Halwa, a serving of Kesari and a tumbler of authentic Kumbakonam degree coffee, we moved our army to Ramaswamy Koil. This is one temple that will be usually ignored by pilgrims to KMU – this is the only temple that has a full-fledged Pattabhishekasevai of Sri Ramar, along with Anchaneyar in a unique posture, holding Ramayana book in his left hand and a Veenai in his right hand, singing Ramayana hymns.

We still had time, and the rains were off, so we settled for a plan change: this time, to adopt the original plan itself i.e. boarding Uzhavan at MV. We then drove to OppiliappanKoil via Mahamaham tank. Being a Saturday, the temple was a bit crowded, but not crowded enough to hamper a peaceful sevai of Him. I sang my favouriteNammazhwarpasuram, “Ennappan, ponnappan, muthappan, maniappan, thannoppaarillappan…”.Bought variety rice at the temple stall for dinner as it was a far better option compared to spoiling our stomach by eating in a hotel (messes would have got closed by then). After finishing a darshan at the adjacent Tirunageswaram temple, we decided to call it for the day.

On the way back, just as we were nearing Tiruvidaimarudur, I announced, “it is MY turn for a plan change and I am going to ask for a halt to Tiruvidaimarudur so that I can get in, have a darshan of one of my favouritesannadhis – the Mookambika”. With no other options available, the gang agreed for a halt. I ran in to have a darshan of Mahalingam swamy… (Ajay joined me) there was a big ceremony going on in, I learned that the elaborate pooja was for BharaniDeepam. “What a privilege it is for me, to have a Bharani Deepam darshan in a temple which has the moolavar’s name as ‘Jyothi’ Mahalingam!” This town is equivalent to Tiruvannamalai in this regard. Imagine, an absolutely no-crowd Tiruvannamalai temple on a Bharani Deepam day with proceedings happening right in front of you – I was thrilled. Since this temple has a unique requirement of devotees should enter via Sivan gopuram and leave via Ambal gopuram (because a Brahmahaththi is sitting outside Sivan gopuram ready to catch a pilgrim unawares), we went via the mid-entrance near 4^thprakaram to reach Ambal sannidhi. As we were ready to leave, we were met by the procession coming from the main gate, asking us to stay where we were i.e. inside Ambal sannidhi. All other general public in that procession were asked to stay near the outer door, and the main priest brought in a big plate (thaambaalam) with five lamps, the holy Bharani Deepam, and offered to the Ambal, right in front of us – I got goosebumps!! I could not ask for more!

After this ritual was complete, I thanked the Ambal for this opportunity, sending right signals in my mind at the right time, asking me to ask for a halt and pulling us in… I then went straight to Mookambika sannidhi in the 4^thprakaram, had a peaceful darshan and came out. As a factoid, the only temple in TN to have a sannidhi for Mookambika is Tiruvidaimarudur, on a similar note, Poovanur near Nidamangalam / Mannargudi hosts the only sannidhi for Chamundi in TN.

After an uneventful drive via Aduthurai, Kuttalam, Kshetrabalapuram and Moovalur, we reached Junction, extremely happy but tired. The car driver, Dinesh, deserved a thousand thanks, more than the additional tip that we happily paid him. It is extremely rare to find such a cooperative chap, accommodating all funny route plan change requests, driving through cyclonic storm with thunderbolts and torrential rains! We finished our dinner in the vast expanse of Platform 1 at Mayiladuthurai Junction. Uzhavan arrived a bit early because of the absence of crossing with Meenakshi on that day. It was detained at MV till the scheduled PTT departure of 2230. A pleasant sight to the eyes, a charming green WDM-2 #16865 from Ponmalai (Golden Rock / GOC) shed did the honours. I was super tired at VM, when we reached there at 145h; too tired to get-up, walk and note the Electric loco that would have been attached there.

A sedate, but decent run in the train threw us out at Mambalam at 430 in the morning. Got down, walked up North in the platform, jumped the tracks to get an auto – as always, there were demands for 150s and 200s for KK Nagar. I brushed them aside and got an autowala who agreed for meter. The meter came to 50 Rupees, adding a 1.5x charge for early morning run, I paid him 80 Rupees. He received it happily and signed off. The Sunday was well-spent taking rest.

Overall, it was a day of storms, rains, thunder, lightning, fiercely waving coconut trees and a bunch of temple darshans in between.

Thanks for your patient reading, comments and feedback most welcome.

-Aravi.