Short trip to kallidai kuruchi

My trip to India was planned in such a manner that I could join our family get together in Kallidaikuruchi - Ambasamudram Thaluk of Tirunelveli District. Every year we used to celebrate Adiswathi at Lakshmivaraha murthi temple. As you are aware Kallidaikuruchi is famous for Applam, and of course one of the favorite location for the Tamil film industry. The list of film includes, Gentleman, Anyan, etc.

However my trip had to be postponed in the last minute due to some emergency work and really I missed the family get together. But I got feedback from my brothers, bharat and Shriram.

Later I visited Trivandrum in the month of September, and one of my agenda was to visit Kallidaikuruchi. To my bad luck, my wife got injured in her left leg, and on advice of her doctor forced my family to stay back in Trivandrum.
As I was planning my programme to Kallidai,my priority was to travel by meter gauge train, because this could be my last chance to travel by meter gauge train. I tried so many permutations and combination so that I could travel at least a short distance in the meter gauge train. However I could not find a suitable timing, since the section from Kollam to Punalur has been closed for gauge conversion. The probability of taking train from punalur to Tirunelveli also didn’t materialise, as the timing is not at all convenient for me.
So unwillingly, I decided to take the Guruvayoor-chennai egmore express from Trivandrum to Tirunelveli. In the previous night, I borrowed my sister-in-laws scooter, so that I could reach Trivandrum central in the early morning. The train reaches Trivandrum central at 3.40 in the morning. I parked my scooter in the parking space and went straight to the booking counter. I was told by the clerk that I could only get a general ticket and can be upgraded to sleeper class inside the train.

The train reached platform No 3 exactly at 3.45. The train was pulled by diesel loco of Ernakulum shed. I got inside a sleeper coach, and occupied one vacant berth. The train left at 3.50 and started picking up speed till Neyyattinkara. We stopped somewhere for crossing of Madurai-Kollam passenger. Finally reached Nagercoil Jn at 5.30. Suddenly I got a wild idea, that I may get the passenger train from Tirunelveli to schenkottai, if my train reaches Tirunelveli jn by 7.00. I just browsed my timetable to find out the timing of the passenger which shows 7.30 in the morning. So I have decided to take this MG passenger from Tirunelveli to Kallidaikuruchi. But all my hopes were shattered as the train took unusually long halt in the Nagercoil jn. Then announcement came on the arrival of Chennai-Kanniyakumari superfast, at 6.10. Again we waited for few more minutes, before we left Nagercoil.



We left Nagercoil at 6.30. The scenery around the nagercoil was very impressive and has soothing effect on my eyes. There were lush green paddy field on both sides, and the scene of Western Ghats, graze by the rain clouds prompted me to take photos, for my friends back in Dubai, who used to see only the barren desert, and artificial gardens and concrete jungles









I. Again my train stopped at Arulvaimozi for the crossing of Mumbai nagercoil express. I saw the beauty of wind mills rotating around arulvaimozi station. I was expecting ananthapuri to cross us at Tirunelveli Jn. Since we were late, we met ananthapuri in valliyoor itself. Finally we reached Tirunelveli at 8.30. I could see the abandoned MG platform in the Tirunelveli. I was told that the meter gauge trains are no more entering JN and are leaving from Tirunelveli town station. Anyway I abandoned my plan to take the meter gauge train. (I still remember me and my cousin Ravi went to kallidai during the year 1992, when it was pulled by steam loco). Later I came out of the station, and had breakfast in the hotel outside. I rushed directly to bus stand, where I was greeted by a bus going to papanasam. The bus was very old, without any window pane glass, and seats are vibrating, when the bus picked up speed. To make the things worse, sudden shower enroute drenched me completely as this bus was leaking from all sides. After one hour of journey, I reached Kallidai kuruchi bus stand. I got down at panchayat office bus stop. I went directly to thamaraparni river, which was one of the important programme for my kallidai visit. I had a bath in the river, which was flowing full because of the rain in the catchment. I enjoyed my bath in the river, and went straight to temple





When I reached temple, preparations were goingon forthe afternoon pooja. The Poojari greeted me. I remember this duo performing pooja in this temple since my thathas period. I was taken to the roof top Vishnu temple, for deeparadhana. By 12.30 I finished the worship, and came out of the temple. I got prasadam, vada,and thairsadam. On my return from temple, I took photos of sannidi street, our own kuthukal street, market area etc.























Then I went straight of railway station to take again photos of this british era station. I know, after the gauge conversion, this station may be demolished to pave way for modern broad gauge station.












After finishing my photos I waited for bus to tirunelveli. Due to heavy crowd I had to wait for another one hour to get a bus to tirunelveli. I reached tirunelveli at 16.00 hrs and had a short snacks in the vasantham hotel. I started searching for the bus to nagercoil or direct to Trivandrum. Finally I got in to a video coach express bus coming from chennai. The situation inside the bus was so pathetic. The bus might have left chennai around 23 hrs from chennai, and people are anxious to reach their desitination as fast as possible. But the driver and conductor seems looking for maximum collection, and were waiting for the maximum passengers to board. (Now I realise why private buses are more favour compared to govt buses.) The bus left around 17;30 hrs and the driver never picked up any speed to compensate for the lost time.
Still travelling at 60Kmperhr, we reached Nagercoil at 18.30. It started raining heavely till I reach trivandrum. I got down at TVS busstand, and again waited for another one hr for the rain to recide before I could reach my home.