Running to Madurai

Bridge between India and Lanka

 We can get autorickshaws for visiting Rameshwar city right from outside the Ramnathswamy temple. They charge us Rs. 500 and show all the 10 famous spots. I don’t remember all the names and locations but Ill tell you the main ones-1^st was a temple, from where we can see the complete Rameshwar, it was situated well above ground level. 

Train Bridge between mainland India and Rameshwaram

Next we visited the Ramsetu, although we cannot exactly see the bridge, but the point from where it was actually started.  Its said that in 2006 Tsunami, the bridge was submerged under water and not only the bridge but one complete village. As per todays date, we can see people walking in ocean (on submerged bridge) for atleast 2-3 kms which shows existense of bridge from India to Sri Lanka. We can even purchase floating stones from there by paying Rs. 150-200.

Dr. Kalam's House

There were small temples and lakes in between and also Thakurjis Baithak ji. Then there was a Panchmukhi Hanuman temple and the most interesting “Kalams House”, Indias X President used to live in Rameshwaram and has modified 1^st floor of his house into a museum. It houses all the prestigious awards earned by the Missile Man. Its actually an inspiration source for todays youth and the only museum in India without an entry fee.  

It took us around 2 hrs to complete the spots, tour was wrapped up by 11 o clock in morning. Hence we started running to Madurai-our next destination. Previously our plan was to spend a day in Rameshwaram and next in Madurai, and we were able to close the show in a single day. I advised Baba that we can visit Kanyakumari and come back instead of going Madurai, but he didn’t had the thing to move to a new place and return. So we just visited Madurai.

We were there by 3 o clock but at that time Meenakshi Temple was closed so we visited a fort nearby, in the meantime we rescheduled our bus for the same day-thanks to internet and mobile, since it was useless to do timepass in madurai. Next we visited another big temple-Meenakshi and then too bus station. In short we visited 2 holy places in a single day and returned back to Chennai.

Fast Track visit to Rameshwaram

Rameshwaram is located on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about 50 kilometres from Mannar Island. In other words there is no land connectivity between India and Rameshwaram but a bridge. Atually 2 Bridges-a land bridge and a railway as seen in pictures.

Why Rameshwaram?

well one reason that you already know is-I like to roam around as much as I can but more important reason was Baba. One of my roomie-Baba wanted to have Janeu- Upanayana.

In Hinduism, a Yajñopavītam (Sanskrit: यज्ञोपवीतम्, yajñopavītam) is a thin consecrated cord, composed of distinct cotton strands, worn to symbolize the permission given to the wearer to perform Sandhyavandanam and Gayatri Mantra. In some areas it is mandatory to wear the thread in order to sit in sacred rituals like marriage, our case was of marriage only, I believe.

I also believe God actually wanted me to visit Rameshwar, since as soon as Baba asked me to make a plan, fortunately there was a change in my shift which provided me 4 days continuous leave. So I didn’t visited Rameshwar, God made me to visit. I must say, I am a lucky person with Gods grace-touch wood.

Train and Land Bridge

We started from Chennai at 5 PM and reached there by 4 AM-a good nights sleep and you are there. As soon as we stepped down rickshawalas surrounded us for hotels and temples, but we knew that its short distance, so we avoided them and spotted a public bus. There was hardly 10 minute distance from station to temple. we saw dawn and dark posing together as we jumped out from bus. We started enquiring about the procedure and priests for Janeu. Now Baba saw a Gujrati Dharamshala, I thought it would be the best place to get the details and it was. One Gujju uncle educated us that we can have the Janeu performed through any Preist wearing an ID. Note Its very important to know real and authentic people in any pilgrimage. We got a Preist who knew hindi and understood what we were looking for. He told us that its very simple and gonna costs us only 250 bucks but Baba is Baba, he said only 250, then Priest understood his financial condition and showed us more items from menu which were Shiv Puja and one more costing 500 and 1000.

I told Baba we want only Janeu, lets go for 250 plan but Baba said “its gonna costs me 1000s if I go to my hometown for this and he is asking only 100s, lets go for 500 plan”. I said “your wish”. Now there are 3 points to ponder here, may be I am too kanjus or may be Baba likes to spend a lot or he is too much into God, not sure what it is… I do not like to give a lot of money to these kind of Preists who are already earning a lot from people but to give money to actually needy.

Priest performing rituals

One more interesting incident happened here is that Priest educated us that its not necessary to be bald for Janeu, so we completed Shiv Puja and Janeu, but Baba had pre information that becoming bald is a necessity, so after performing Janeu, we headed for barber shop. Finally Baba was bald now.

Our main objective was over now, we got refreshed, took bath in open air bathroom and geared up for Rameshwar temple, had a proper Darshan. Rameshwar temple is such a huge temple that you may get lost in it, its not like a single temple, but numerous small temples, its good to be with your group while roaming around in temple.

Note: Its said that we should go for a ritual in which Preist will pour water on us from many wells around 22 which takes around 2 hours, but both of us were not very much intereseted in that, so we didn’t go for it.

Rest story in next part, keep reading…………………………….

Comedy Day with Barfi

Few days back, I had a very different and same experience in an Auditorium. “Different” because it was a live one and I was the audience in the most spectacular, magnificent location of an MNC.  “Same” because I was having the same feeling as I have when I watch the weekly comedy show. The same setup was planned for the Sr. Director of a account when she arrived in India for a meet. Each and everything was planned and well organized there, literally everything was a properly planned. All the seats were marked, Questions and Question asking sequence, events, all was planned before the show.

I must say it’s a good practice which saves time, avoid confusions and make the show successful. When I was there, I was feeling like, its nothing but the weekly show that I watch in TV. In that show everything is a set-up right from audience seating arrangement to Qs, Questioning Sequence, guest entrance/exit, everything is properly planned in advance. Everything is Scripted and shows success shows how important it is to have everything planned. Hats off to such a planning.

My Q is “is it necessary to plan every moment? Will it be more useful if we do not plan few events?”

Now you might be thinking that why I used the name Barfi, because the Sr. Directory name relates to the name which gave us the name – Barfi (Movie). I hope you might crak the name.

I have to use such names because I don’t want to hurt any person. Whatever I write in this blog is just my point of view, you may or may not like it and I don’t have any objection in your view.

Instead I would like to know your thoughts on my writing. You may have a totally different point of view on things and its better for us to know each others view. Now I have completed my job by writing this blog, you may do the same by replying/commenting below. I always say 2 opinions are better than one.

Thanks for your Time

Asta Labista

Last Road Trip in Sri Lanka

Road trip in Sri Lanka

Day 4

Place: Negombo

Our last day in Lanka was planned to go for Scuba diving and enjoy the underwater world, which was never been seen and cannot be experienced on land. When we approached scuba trainers, we got to know that ocean is rough today, so it is not possible to go today. We had to drop our adventure, next we had lunch and since we didn't had any plans to go further, we thought to go for yet another new sport -Massage. As soon as we entered in parlour, they gave us a cool napkin, I mean literally cool sweet smelling napkin to wipe our face. When we put it on, I must say it was really really cool and when we wiped our faces, it was so relaxing, cleansing and soothing. In other words, it was awesome. After such experience, no one can resist to try more that the parlour has to offer. Then they gave us their brochure to select the type of massage, we would like to go for. We selected the lowest cost massage meant for full body in 30 mins costing 1000 LKR. Then they informed us that “many Indians ask for male-female massage, but we only give male male and female female, we do not offer other kind of massage”. We said its totally cool for us, we are looking for massage only. Its not what we wanted to say, but under the conditions, we had to say, please understand boys will be boys.

I must say, it was the best thing that we did in Lanka, whole massage thing was very relaxing, we were feeling so light as if nothing is left inside our body. If you didn't had massage in Lanka you had nothing.

Then we returned our bike and headed for hot bath in our hotel since whole massage thing was very oily and sticky. Next plan was to go for shopping followed by dinner. We were roaming here and there in the  streets of Negombo looking for a proper gift and our eyes fall on a painting shop, the paintings were remarkable, not so costly and painter was deaf, counting all these factors, we made our mind that this would be the perfect gift for our loved ones.

We purchased a lot of paintings from that shop, had dinner. In the meantime we had a lil chat with the waiter who became our friend afterwards. Also we tried a new kind of juice-Wood Apple juice (Kabit). It  was also a unique experience for me, as I like eating kabit chatni, but its juice, it was a different thing. FYI I still prefers chatni over Juice.

Massage Parlour

After all the fun and adventure on road, we finally returned back to airport. One funny incident took place there too, an old lady suddenly started doing exercise and it wasn't a regular exercise, it was a mix of dance and exercise. Everyone started staring at her, may be she had some kind of problem/disease, or her daily routine, but it became a funny scene.

It was a great scene there, lots of foreign tourists roaming here and there in stunning dresses. The best time pass was just to enjoy the scene.