Holy tentacle of India
Rameshwaran, one of most photogenic places on Earth and probably the holiest 'aquatic park'. Bucket loads of holy goodness ready for them pilgrims… and us
Oh, good old Rameshwaram! The sacred tentacle of India reaching towards Sri Lanka. Tamil Nadu is sort of forgotten corner of India (a least for most of the tourists) and Rameshwaran is forgotten corner of this forgotten corner. Although what is lacks in urbanization or connectivity it substitutes with its religious importance as pilgrim town.
So Rameshwaran was again full of pilgrims from all over India who came to worship Shiva and Rama in a place where Rama had worshipped Shiva, after Rama with help of Hanuman had defeated evil king of (Sri) Lanka in Ramayana. Hanuman’s monkey army had built a bridge to Sri Lanka so that Rama could do justice and save his princess Sita. That peninsular tentacle where Rameshwaram sits is the remainder of this mythological bridge.
We joined Hindus and did what everybody comes here to do: get splashed by 22 buckets of holy waters from 22 from sacred wells in a temple. Most of the wells represent some sacred river and Hindus believe that the water in the wells is somehow (supernaturally) sourced from those rivers. As a result of the most holy splashing around we are guaranteed to get rich, go to heaven and not go to hell and (this is my favorite) we gained knowledge of the past, the present and the future. WOW! :-)
We also did a trip Danushkodi a ghost town which had been swept away by a cyclone decades ago and which is now a tiny village literally at the end of India – at the end of that tentacle reaching towards Sri Lanka. There is not even road there. You have to either walk for 2 hours across beach and sand dunes from the end of the paved road from Rameshwaram or board a 4WD off-road minibus which goes across sand and shallow sea. Forgotten corner of forgotten corner of forgotten corner of India :-)
