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At first light, we looked for the beach. The bay has advanced, says a guard pointing to a boat anchored at the end of a white expanse in the shallow water. The occupation lasts for three months. The waves splashed on the long concrete platform lit by neon lamps. A group of pilgrims, who were our fellow-travellers from Rameswaram bus stand, joins a larger crowd bathing in the sea.

Between sea and sea

Don Sebastian
2006-03-10 10:39:44

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Sri Lanka linked the railway stations at Dhanushkodi and Talaimannar till December 23, 1964. After the cyclone, the steam engine was found in Thoothukudi, several km south, says Gandhidas, who was 10 then.

Gandhidas was sitting on a catamaran by the sea. Waves lashed the remnants of a building floor. He showed us the skeletons of the town - the railway station, water tank, employees' quarters, warehouse and the school where Kalam studied. Facades that weathered many a storm…European columns partially covered by sand dunes…fisherfolk marooned in a godforsaken place with no power of water connection.

Traces of the tar road turns to the port that was. We stride up the beach, wade through the waves. Its only midway, Gandhidas had told us. The occasional truck that carries loads of fish to Rameswaram also transports tourists deep into Dhanushkodi. But we decide to walk on. The day begins to hot up. Sand and shells massage our feet.

After a point there is no one in sight. Even fishermen shun the cape. No end, no beginning: endless sea and endless sand.

At last, Sea Ahoy! The lovers run into each other's arms where our journey ends. The male is milder here. It is the end of India. But we needed an Indian Navy chopper menacingly hovering over us to be reminded of the boundary. On a patch of wet sand, surrounded by calm waves on three sides, with only seagulls and eagles for company, we were lost in time.

This cape is holy. It was the starting point from where Rama and his band of monkeys built a bridge to Lanka to rescue his abducted wife. A coral reef connects the many islands on the way to Talaimannar. Later, Neechal Kali showed us the floating corals, the building blocks of the mythical bridge.

Kali got the nick Neechal (swimming in Tamil) after he swam to Talaimannar thrice - the last time in 1995 when he was 57. Every time an adventurer ventures into the sea, Kali is counselled, he claims. Abandoned by family, he lives alone in the erstwhile passport office. He can still swim to the strife-torn country, he says. All Tigers know him.

Palk Straits has seen waves of migration: Indians crossing over to the then Ceylon in search of jobs, Tamils fleeing ethnic violence in Sri Lanka, gunrunners and smugglers. Irshad was retracing the footsteps of his father, who crossed the sea in a row boat to build a chain of hotels in Sri Lanka. Wind and waves erase all footsteps.

Back in Rameswaram, one of the holiest of Hindu temples - a place holy for Shaivaites and Vaishnavites alike. After Rama's conquest of Lanka, he installed the shivalingam here. The sea is called Agnitheertham because his wife Sita dipped here after her trial by fire. We circle the temple through the 1219-m corridor consisting of 3.6-m-high granite pillars before getting a bus to Nagercoil.

It was dark when we crossed Pamban bridge. The 2.2-km-long Annai Indira Gandhi Bridge connecting Rameswaram Island to the mainland is the longest sea bridge in India. Parallel to it is the cantilever railway bridge. Originally built in 1914 and rebuilt after the cyclone in 1964, Pamban bridge is the only remaining testimony to the erstwhile coastal transport.