------published in TheWeek's TripTease column in December 2016 ----
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| The Vivekananda Rock Memorial - Kanyakumari |
This temple town in Tamilnadu forms the southernmost tip of
India. Situated right at the confluence
of the three seas – the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean –
Kanyakumari is a historic and beautiful destination.
Kanyakumari is situated about 90 kms from
Thiruvananthapuram and we took a bus from the Thiruvananthapuram Bus-stand, close
to the famous Padmanabhaswamy temple. The
bus-ride was painfully slow and it took a good 4 hours to reach
Kanyakumari.
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| The photographer captured! |
The famous Vivekananda Rock Memorial is situated about 500 m
from the mainland. One has to take a
ferry to cross over to the other side. Being
a Saturday, the place was crowded and the queue for tickets was long. The watchman assured us that the crowd that
day was significantly lower than on other national holidays! The spell-binding
view of the Rock
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| View from the mainland |
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| Posing beside the ornate door of the Memorial |
A walk around the outer platform is thoroughly enjoyable – the sea
breeze is quite strong and refreshingly cool. One can spend any amount of time
just watching the lashing waves and enjoying the breeze as it plays around with
your hair and clothes, gently billowing and blowing through, providing the much
needed respite from the hot sunny day. The
thought that one is standing on unique ground - right at the southernmost tip
of India, surrounded by three seas – adds to the awe and magnitude of the
experience.
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| Enjoying the cool breeze! |
A few metres from the Vivekananda Rock, on an adjacent stone
island, is the majestic 133 ft. tall Thiruvalluvar Statue. Thiruvalluvar is a great Tamil poet and
philosopher whose famous work, ‘the Thirukkural’ is an important treatise on
life and offers teachings on good conduct, morals and how to lead a happy and
contented life. The poet wrote the 133
chapters (and thus, the height of the statue) in ancient times but his
teachings remain true and
relevant even to this day. One is left totally wonder-struck, admiring
the beautiful stone cut figure of Tamilnadu’s much revered poet.
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| Medhini holding the Thiruvalluvar statue in her palm! |
As we headed back to the main land, the lights were switched
on at the Vivekananda Rock and what a sight it was! Truly remarkable and well worth all the wait
that one has to put up with! The sun had
set and as the last rays slowly vanished, the illumined lights of the Rock
provided a fantastic view.
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| When the lights were turned on. |
We then slowly edged our way to the main temple dedicated to
the young-girl goddess Kanyakumari. The
deity of the Goddess is beautiful – like an adolescent girl wearing a
long-skirt, blouse and a ‘daavini’,
or half-sari, holding a rosary in her
hand. The story is that Goddess Parvathi
took the form of a young, virgin girl to kill the evil Banasura, who had been
granted the boon that he could be killed by no man but only by a young, virgin
girl. Thus, she remained unmarried to
fulfil her prophecy.
The ring adorning the Goddess’s nose has a powerful glitter
and shines lustrously. In fact, it is
believed that the bright light emanating from her nose-ring could be seen from
the seas. Several ships mistook this
brilliance to be the lighthouse, sailed towards it and ended up crashing
against the rocks. As a result today,
the eastern side of the temple facing the sea, has been walled up to prevent
such mishaps.
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| At the confluence of the three water bodies! |
After a long but memorable day spent in the beautiful and
historic town of Kanyakumari, we took the bus back to Thiruvananthapuram.
