The demon on the prowl

What you see here is the first glimpse of the rising sun as spotted from the rocky coasts of Kanyakumari. But lemme recount the journey I undertook to reach this end of India...

I left my bro's home at around 8:15 and reached the KSRTC bus stand at Kochi around 9:15...Spotted a bus heading to Trivandrum but how would I know that Kerala bus drivers are pretty punctual....Before I could return after taking a leak, the bus had zoomed off. Then caught the next bus at 10:15...sala ek ghanta waste! Chalo koi baat nahi...Some day I might write an essay on a day at the bus depot. After all am sure every kid in India must have written one on railway stations.

Kochi to Trivandrum is a six hour journey, but the route is beautiful...spent a major chunk of my time chatting with a Marwadi businessman who could also double up as a Kerala guide...man...he knows every place and has been to every place in Kerala...Finally Trivandrum arrived...rather I arrived in Trivandrum at 4:15...immediately caught a bus to Nagercoil. For the uninformed, Nagercoil is in Tamil Nadu. Thiruvananthapuram to Nagercoil is a two hour journey. But an unquestionably mundane activity like travelling in a Tamil Nadu inter state bus could throw surprises that one might learn from. In this case I learnt the art of survival. I casually started talking to a simple looking South Indian, Kalidas, who was carrying an even simple looking suit-case and asked him where is he coming from. Never in the wildest of my otherwise wild imagination would I have expected a reply like Maldives!

A mason by profession, he obviously labours hard to eek out an existence. He is an employee of a construction firm and has been building buildings in Maldives for the past one and half years. Now hes on the way to Trichy which is around 10-12 hrs frm Nagercoil. The only thing that was sweeter than the Alpenliebe he offered was the omnipresent smile on his tired face. (Do I get paid for brand mention?) Whoever said that experience is the biggest teacher must have felt the way I felt at that moment. Thank you Kalidas. You re-instilled the belief in me that nothing is secondary to hard work. Reached Nagercoil in two hours only to catch another bus for Kanyakumari. Here I met Krishna, again a simple youth, who is studying hardware and is working presently for a computer hardware firm (no point in going into the details now). My cousin in Mumbai had remined me the other day to stay at the rooms provided by the Vivekananda Kendra in Kanyakumari. Krishnan told me to alight at the Kendra stop which is just next to the facade that welcomes you to Kanyakumari. The time was 8:00 pm. But sorry....no rooms at the Kendra! season hai...what to do?

Walked few metres and spotted what was the most amazing and worst name for a hotel I have ever seen in life..."Hotel Rehoboth"!...wtf does it mean? sounds more like a rehab center. First the shabby old man at the reception looked at me with suspicion...Thaniya? Vera yaarume illaiya? Appadi naanga thani aalukku room kudukkamaaatom saar! (Alone...no one else....we dont give rooms to a lone person) They suspected that I might bang some chicks at night. I somehow managed to show them my outdated XIC (Xavier Institute of Communications) ka id card...gave them loads of bakwass abt hw am nt into banging chicks (in short am a loser)...instead am here on a tour.....to click pictures...blah blah. They did give a room. Dingy, dirty and depressing, yet costs Rs 300 for a day. The only thing exciting in that room was my presence...and this time I mean it.

Had "Full meals" at Triveni vegetarian restaurant. Came back to Rehab center and crashed. No mosquito repellant, so applied vibhuti all over my body. Who says am not a good boy!...Within minutes Christian devotional songs blasting from a loudspeaker acted as a lullaby as I dozed off. Next morning woke up at 5:00. Left the room by 6:00 and walked some fifteen minutes to reach the shores of the great Indian ocean. It takes you some moments to realise that you are standing on the last few bits of your motherland. And then it happened. The orange sun showed itself to us mere mortals. The thunderous applause that followed literally forced me to ask what's the score. Seriously man....have you ever seen or heard people applauding after spotting a sunrise? O whatte performance by the sun! After playing peekaboo for a few minutes, Suryadev finally rose and shone to his full splendour. Happy clicking!

The crowd dispersed and headed for the temple. And that is when I saw this...Grr... ...how the F can people pee inside a temple? What kind of devotion is this? Show me one place in the Vedas where it is written that its ok to free your bladder inside a place of worship and I will show you an Indian whos never spat on the street. And did I mention the remnants of last nights dinner that the great people of our country had scattered on the rocks at the ocean's coast. Shame on us. What I hate is that this shit (no pun intended) is happening in the name of religion, God and spirituality. Whoever said that in order to have the darshan of Ayappa swamy at Sabarimala, you hafta pee at Kanyakumari? Well, thats what it seems.

Anyways the line for darshan was huge. Though I get bored easily standing in these serpentine queues, I still waited. After the darshan I headed for the steamer to visit Vivekananda rock memorial and Thiruvalluvar's statue. And must say...few places on this planet (not that I have been to many of them) will give you an electric feel as you step on them. Only Vivekananda could have done it. Swim across high tides and meditate on a rock for three days. I brought a chota book from the stalls inside. I won't and can't express the thrill of that piece of immortal rock. Same with the Thiruvalluvar statue. Silence is indeed golden, silver and imitation.

Bidding adieu to Kanyakumari and Tamilnadu, me caught the 2 pm bus for Trivandrum. Three hours later was back in Trivandrum. Only to take a bus for Kovalam. Ab bus yaar! Kovalam beach is a paradise for a voyeur. After all how often is that an Indian gets to see chicks lazing around in a bikini in a beach. But yours truly had better things to do...after all nothing beats a quick dip amidst the lashing waves. Must say...Kovalam is a clean zone...From Kovalam me took a rick to Trivandrum station.....Big Mistake as I was cramped in it with four others...my shins pressed hard against the rickshaw's sidebars even as I balanced my knapsack on my lap.

But the drama hadn't stopped. Reached Trivandrum station at around 5:05 pm. The electronic board displayed an inter-state train to Kochi leaving at 5:10 pm. 5 minutes and a train to catch...made a dash for the ticket counter and there were four people already waiting in line, albeit for different trains. I requested the lady standing ahead to allow me to buy my ticket before her as mine was an emergency. The kind woman obliged, but the other two men thought that I had jumped the queue and in return, they too did the same. It was 5:08 or maybe 5:09 when I got my ticket. After thanking and apologising to the woman I made a dash for platform number 4. 5:10..the train had already started chugging...and I was on the bridge. It is not advisable to catch a moving train.....but can't help it when you do not know when the next train is scheduled for. Finally I, along with another guy, ran along with the running train and both collided at the main door...after exchanging stupid smiles I let him enter first...finally in...whew!

Reached Kochi in 4 hours and dined at Arya Bhavan and finally left for my bros home. As my bro and his family hadn't returned from an outing, me chatted with their landlord for some time which lead to another crash course in Kerala politics. Phir crashed.