Kadaimugam 2015

“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.”

Nothing changed from the scene I faced exactly 2 years ago. Turning the clock to Nov. 15, 2015, the same question was asked, “Should we go or should we cancel?”.  By the time the charts were prepared for 183 Dn Uzhavan Express, Ramanan had already announced in all TV channels that the depression is all set to become a cloud burst and throw the entire Chennai City out of gear for the next one week. It was a good initial attendance for the Kadaimugam 2015 bookings – Appa, Anand, Chithappa, Ashok, Sakthi, Sasi, Sri, Sivakumar mama, Santhanam mama, Ajay, Prabhu and myself – 12 in total. The second half of that Sunday of Nov. 15 was marked prominently with non-stop rains. As the booking was in 183 Dn Uzhavan Express, we had the option of boarding at Mambalam. Never we realized that how risky was that call!!

With a few drop outs, Chithappa due to illness, Santhanam mama had to step off to take care of our Prakruthi pappa, Sri due to a personal requirement, the number travelling came down to 9. We started early from Anand’s house fearing delays and slow moving traffic. True to our fears, there was a pond of water at the very end of Mahadevan Street itself. Arya Gowder road itself resembled a full flowing Kaveri river – no need to go all the way to Mayuram, one has to just step out of the car and take a walk in that running river (of AGR) for a few minutes, it will give moksham!

One more right turn into one of the many streets that connect AG Road and Thambiah Road was resembling the Paarkadal itself… half way through and we decided to call it there and got off the car. The ‘driving’ factor was that the car has to return safe to Anand’s house. The four of us (Appa, Anand, Sivakumar and myself) got down into knee deep water and walked all the way through Station Road in about 45 minutes, which does not take more than 10 minutes on a normal day. The ‘walk’ I mentioned above is the typical rainy day walk with leg-dragging through the knee deep water. I was able to spot Mr. Rocky, the Rockfort Express starting from Mambalam only around 11.15 PM, it meant some comfort for me as it will have a cascading effect on trains that follow him.

Ashok somehow made it to Mambalam, Prabhu abandoning it mid-way through his journey to the station. Sakthi and Ajay have made it to Tambaram by then and Sasi boarded at Egmore. He confirmed that Uzhavan departed at 11.45 PM. Mahal Express was not seen at all. Salem Express blasted through exactly at odd hours and we were expecting Kamban next, but to our surprise announcement of Uzhavan was made for B line at 00.15 hrs. Later I got to know that Mahal and Kamban got stuck in the water logging at Egmore and were dispatched late by an hour each.

Finally boarded the train! After a cautious run, the first of the many halts started at Pallavaram. From then on, it was a 10 minute halt at every block station (Tambaram, Vandalur, Guduvancheri and Kattankolathur) followed by cautious driving. There were calls from home asking to abandon the plan as there was a rumour that Madurantakam lake’s embankment got breached. But the old and faithful NTES declared that Boat Mail had crossed that place and Mangalore was about to. There was a relay of trains lined up one after other at each block while we were at Vandalur (Mangalore at Chengalpattu, Rockfort at Kattankolathur, Salem at Guduvancheri). At this rate we were not sure whether we will reach Chengalpattu by the next day morning. Anyway a call was taken that whatever be the status, we will have a good sound sleep in the comfort of the train and will get down at Chengalpattu by morning and return home by taking a bus or a Beach unit.

As we were nearing GI, the good news came through NTES that Mangalore has crossed Madurantakam and is blasting through towards Tindivanam. I got myself convinced that we will go to Mayuram the next day for sure! Finally, it turned out to be a case of water logging in the tracks between Pallavaram and Kattankolathur that was the reason for the delay. We reached CGL at 02.10, late by 2.5 hours. Breezing through the embankment of Kolavai lake near CGL Outer was like driving in the side road of Marina beach. It was literally like the Bay.

What happened after that is a romance story for any train lover! The red warrior from Royapuram – WAP-4 #22959 displayed all his might by blasting through at MPS. The rumoured section between Karunguzhi and Madurantakam was literally torn apart at 110 kmph. The next moment I remember was the halting at Villupuram Junction at 3.10 AM. 100 km in one hour with all those temporary speed restrictions enroute.

The electric loco gave way for a diesel brute WDM-3D #11454 from Erode, which was merrier than the former. We started from VM at 4.20, after an extended halt.  Panruti halt was at 4.40, Cuddalore Mudhunagar at 5.05, Chidambaram at 5.35 and finally Mayuram home signal at 5.55 AM, late by just 40 minutes!

We got down at Mayuram and were picked up by Dinesh in his Tempo Traveller. Yes, he was the same one who picked us up at Mayuram on the day of cyclone landfall exactly 2 years ago. Dilip’s parents were kind enough to accommodate us in their house for refreshing ourselves. We then took off to Lagatam – slight drizzle to give us company. By the time we got down, we were welcomed by the familiar sight of the ghat, resembling the holy city of Kasi. The full flowing Kaveri, the mandapam in the middle of the river, Lagatam ghat mandapam on the other bank, veda chants through speakers, the aroma of agarbathis and camphor, Kala Bhairavar and Tundi Ganapathi sannidhis, pilgrims taking their ‘muzhukku’ – it was surreal to say the least.

After a satisfying dip for Kadaimugham, we then started our round trip exploration – the first stop was Indhalur. The very sight of the huge Parimala Rangan Perumal in Veera sayanam will drown any devotee into His ocean of Bhakthi. He was kind enough to bless us with a dose of his prasadam as well – Pongal. The next stop was Nidur Arutsomanathar temple. A quaint little temple in an equally quaint little town… It was a pleasant sight to see the sthalamaram, Magizha maram, in full bloom. The entire ground area below the canopy of that tree was full of Magizhampoo. We had a good darshan at the temple.

The next stop in the plan was Korukkai on the road to Manalmedu. However, with increasing rumours on the rainfall predicted, we decided to cut short the trip and board Cholan at Vaitheeswaran Koil instead of the scheduled plan to board Uzhavan, the overnighter. We took a ‘Take Diversion’ and joined the main road to Chidambaram and proceeded to another unplanned temple, Thirunindriyur. One of the best darshans I have ever had in the temple – the Gurukkal swamy was kind enough to share the Sthalapuranam in a wonderful narrative style making us feel spellbound. Adding to that was the fact that we heard ‘gowli’ atleast five to six times during the period we were in the temple mandapam. The Gurukkal swamy himself was pleasantly surprised and expressed that never he has witnessed such a large number of gowlis in that short span of time of say 15 – 20 minutes!

The next stop was Vaitheeswaran Koil. The beauty of the Vaitheeswaran Swamy, Thaiyalnayaki Ambal, Selvamuthukumaraswamy are beyond words… we had a very satisfactory darshan of the main deities, along with the special deity of the temple, Chevvai. A round of dissolving jaggery, salt and pepper in the temple tank marked the end of the tour.

We marched to the station, bought open tickets and boarded D2 to sit in the door. TTE allotted us seats in D2 at Chidambaram and Cuddalore after collecting the Excess Fare. The highlight of the return trip was the full-flowing Palar at Padalam, touching both the banks, a never to be seen in the normal course of business, even in a year of heavy monsoon. After the halts at all the stations from Chengalpattu, the inundated tracks at Kattangolathur and Urapakkam, we got down at Tambaram finally, an hour late – which is far better than what we feared – whether we will reach Madras by midnight atleast!!

Looking forward to the standard day-long trip in the 2016 edition. Until then, there are lots of memories to digest and relish.