Temple visit--To Thirukoillur.

We were on our way to Thirukoillur , nearly 160 kms away from Chennai, on a govt AC bus ,hoping to complete the circuit ie darshan of Trivikrama Perumal,within the temple timings and return back to Chennai by night.

Travelling by train is more comfortable than either by bus or car. Cars these days are so low , nearly scraping the road that howsoever good the road may be , jerks and bumps are aplenty.

Buses are a wee bit better than cars in absorbing the shocks. They are also better in another way .The detachment of travel , one can get lost to one's thoughts in the crowd as against being constantly being alert in a cocoon like car.

AC chair cars at daytime and AC sleepers for night are my preferable mode of travel.

Here too three tier AC are very cramped . One has to literally crouch in between berths at night and its narrow width failing to accommodate corpulent bodies . The 2 tier AC berths are ample and comfortable.

This time on ,not a single seat was available in train, hence the bus option up to Vizhupuram and from there to cover, another 30 kms ,by local bus or taxi.

After a smooth and a cool journey ,set foot on Vizhupuaram at noon and was nearly blown back by the blast of heat that greeted us.An quick lunch at a indifferent restaurant, was followed by boarding unwittingly a private bus to Thirukoilur, that was purring invitingly , near at hand.

Whilst the 160 kms from Chennai was covered in 3 and half hours , the 28 km took an excruiating 2 hours of bumpy ride.

The bus became packed with villagers , like a jaadi [earthen ware] full of tamarind. It stopped at every 100 ms to pick and drop passengers. A circle of boisterous village women,further fanned the general discomfort in the stifling interiors with their loud curses and laments at the heat, the lack of space and their sordid life.

The bus chose a route that was full of potholes . This bumpy, hot and tiresome journey seemed to be never ending.I couldn't help but draw parallels with the Mudal Aazhwars who had also tightly squeezed for shelter into a small room in this town on a rainy night and felt the presence of god also squeezing inbetween ,and I was proceeding to see the very place that triggered their hymns in cascades , was also squeezed all round by village women, in a hot day .The comparison ends there.

I chided myself for not hiring a taxi.I felt that I had deprived those thin hollow cheeked women of their rightful seat , by occupying them and felt like a alien in a world that is totally theirs, viz constantly jostling for space , counting the change carefully with hands that wore only plastic bangles. And village men equally thin with misty sad eyes and defeated looks.

As we neared Thirukoilur , the sun had lost some of its sting and the bus had quite emptied by then. A small child kept staring at me coyly from the shoulder of her mother , sucking her thumb , daring me to reprimand her for that.There were rolling fields of sugar cane on all sides. Huge trucks were blocking the traffic,[ further delaying], as sugar canes as thin as the villagers , but lighter skinned[whitish,juice type] , tied into bundles were tossed furiously into the trucks.

Finally we reached Thirukoilur. It is a bustling town .River Penna runs by. Had a fine darshan of the majestic form of Trivikrama swamy.

On our return journey to Vizhupuram , I made sure that we boarded a govt run point to point bus , though a private bus was tantalisingly idling close by.There were no taxis in sight.The govt bus chose a better road , halted at very few stops ,was boarded mainly by working men and women mostly teachers retuning home. The bus cruised to Vizhupuram in a hour by overtaking trucks piled to the brim with sugarcane.

Photos.Top: The lush sugar cane fields near Thirukoilur temple town.

Below.I intended to photograph the river Penna that borders Thirukoilur but seemed to have captured the conductor of the govt bus gazing moodily at the dry bed of that river.