Trip to Kallidaikuruchi

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

Unfortunately, my trip has to be postponed in the last minute due to some emergency work and really I missed the family get together. However I got very good feedback from my brothers, bharat and Shriram.
Later I reached Trivandrum in the month of September, and one of the agenda was to visit the 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, because this could be my last chance to travel by meter gauge train. I tried so many permutation 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 finally 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 Central 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 we reached Nagercoil Jn at 5.30. Suddenly I got a wild idea, that I may get the passenger train from Tirunelveli to schenkottai, if our 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, when the announcement came on the departure of our train.

Finally 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, to show it to our friends back in Dubai, who used to see only the barren desert, and artificial gardens I. Finally my train stopped again at Arulvaimozi for 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 when 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 is very old, without any window pane glass, and seats are vibrating, when the bus picked up speed. To make the thing 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 rushed directly to thamaraparni river, which is one of the important programme of my kallidai visit. I had a bath in the river, which was flowing full because of the rain the catchment. I enjoyed my bath in the river, and went straight to temple. When I reached temple, they were preparing for the afternoon pooja. The Poojari greeted me. I remember the duo that has been 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 gage station.