Through the Land of the Cholas - Part III

Continued from Part II

The Point Calimere sanctuary turned out to be a damp squib - quite literally - the trails were all submerged, the ground was soggy and difficult to walk on, and there were no animals in sight. We followed two bewildered red-wattled lapwings that were feeding in the post-rain puddles though. After an hour, we decided to turn back.

We walked down, past the Forest Office (forgot to mention that it was called "Poonarai Illam" or Flamingo House), and down the road to some mud flats we had seen earlier. Here, we spent an hour and a half, and were able to spot painted storks, pelicans, stilts, plovers, terns and gulls. It was darkening, and we caught a smelly van which took us back to Vedaranyam. We went around the town, down the bazaar and down a few lanes. Then we checked out the local temple. We hadn't known that it had any significance. Legend has it that Siva and Parvati had tied the knot in the presence of Agastya here, and the temple has both Imperial Chola and 13th-century Pandya inscriptions.

It was a quiet temple, and seemed to be quite the place for social interactions in the town. Knots of people stood around talking, while under the few tube lights sat students of different hues, alternating between 'studying' and ogling the local belles. There was a sense of completeness in that place that is, of course, quite indescribable. It was a sense that reassured you, a feeling that everything was in its place and life went on as it best knew how to. In all this, we could not feel the weight of centuries unlike in other temple towns. Anyway, after a while, we realised that we were growing hungry and went in search of food. We found it at another 'mess' and after stuffing ourselves with delicious dosais and chappatis, we made our way back to the lodge.

We found the mess that the bus stop guy had recommended: it was actually run by a family, with one room in their house turned into the dining area. We had a wholesome meal and thus refreshed, took a bus to Kodiakkarai. It was a local bus and we reached in 30 minutes. Kodiakkarai is a tiny village on the coast of the Bay of Bengal and so we were very near the sea. There were salt flats on both sides of the road and the vegetation was sparse. We started sighting birds on the way itself: there were many Brahminy kites, magnificent golden rust-coloured birds with white neck and head, which Navin and I enjoy spotting.

The next day we slept till about eight o'clock despite our resolution the previous night to hit the bird trail early and try to catch a few flamingos. We decided to set out to our next destination, Chidambaram. After breakfast, we took a bus to Nagapattinam and from there to Chidambaram. The ride was the usual enjoyable cacophony of all such bus rides in the interior of Tamil Nadu. We reached Chidambaram around lunchtime and checked into Hotel Saradharam. After a good vegetarian meal, we went to the famous Chidambaram temple, and what a disappointment it turned out to be.

To be continued...