My tryst with God – Day 2 @ Kanyakumari
It was 10:50 in night, and I threw away my book and was ready for Celta Vigo v/s Barcelona. I had to wake up 4:30 in the morning so as to envisage the esteemed sunrise of Kanyakumari. Earlier in the morning, I played cricket, clicked profoundly, ate prodigiously and roamed astonishingly, and I was too tired to watch the game. Messi was on top of his game, and I knew Celta Vigo is going to have a hard time tonight. Playing at home ground, Celta Vigo always had an upper hand against much changed Barca side, and yes they took advantage of this lead in 38th minute when Natxo Insa showed great footwork and prodded past Jose Pinto, and Goooooaaallll !!! I was dejected, and was expecting Messi to hit first, it would have been a record to score against all the teams, in consecutive matches – and yes he did it, I read in the morning. I switched off TV, and I thought of sleeping, as I had to wake up early. A nocturnal person like me, was muddled, “How I’ll be able to wake up?”, I asked myself. But eventually, somehow I managed to sleep.
I received a message. “Baker Street. Come at once if convenient. SH. If inconvenient come anyway. SH”. I was perturbed, but gave it a thought again, hired a taxi, and reached 221b Baker Street. Mrs. Hudson, opened the door, and SH started to ruminate and cogitate me. I was flabbergasted on his deductions and said “That…. Was Amazing”. He replied, “You think so?”. I retorted, “Of course it was…. Extraordinary. It was quite extraordinary.” “That’s not what people normally say”, he reprised. “What do people normally say?”, I asked inquisitively. “Piss off.” remarked SH, and we both started laughing. Mrs. Hudson heard our cachinnated voice and came up with pleasant cookies and homey tea. SH was working on some case. Mrs. Hudson was not able to see rope tied between the legs of bed and SH’s study table as it was too low, and lost her balance, and the tray smashed on the floor. “Crashhhh !!!!” This sound woke me up. It was the glass beside my bed, that was toppled by me in sleep, which ultimately woke me up. It was 5:15, I was late, but not by a higher margin. I knew I would be able to make it up, if I’ll run fast. 6:15 was the time for sunrise, it was forecasted by Shekhar Anna, I knew, he would’nt be wrong. Me and Chinmey reached half an hour before, Shekhar Anna came with Mom and Dad, just 20 minutes before the rise. I started adjusting my camera’s ISO, White Balance, Exposure, Aperture, Shutter Speed and what not. It had to be perfect. I woke up especially for this purpose, even demolished Hotel Singaar’s glass for it, and gave up my dream in which I was solving a phenomenal case with Sherlock Holmes. Something in my heart told me, something is going wrong. “Ohh, Batteries !!!” I forgot to change Batteries. And the “Low Battery” sign was blinking profusely on the Camera screen. I was in a state of shock and awe. And was not able to decide what to do. I applied my Jugaadu engineering – I have a degree too – and reversed the polarity of batteries and exchanged their positions, and switched off the Camera. I was confident that I’ll be able to shoot as per my requirements. 15 minutes were remaining, the cloud above Indian Ocean, started showing shades of Orange all over the sky. And the beauty was reflected back in the vast, mammoth, limitless ocean. Every fathom of sea, was tangerine, chrome, red and orange at places.
I was on the edge of Country – as Kanyakumari is the last point of India – and was clicking arbitrarily, so as to find out perfect location, where I can stand and shoot. Finally, found out a solitary rock, which was secluded from rest of the rocks. Jumped on it, started clicking off, 4 South Indians, came on the same rock, from nowhere. I wanted to focus so as to get the perfect shot, “How on this holy earth, they found out this specific place?”, I asked myself. And above all, they started annoying me, with their loud and cranky whistles, and moreover with their Chinese Body, Indian SIM, Made in Korea, despicable Mobile which had a VGA camera, they asked me to click them. “Why you want me to click from your phone, I’ll click you with this cam of mine.”, I said affirmitively. I clicked 6 photographs for them, showed them, they adored it and I deleted them. “What will I do with photos of people which had no connection with me?”, I said to myself in evil tone and smirked, yes I do these things with pleasure. One of the guy came from behind, and shouted “Surya Deva Curiyotayam.” My ears went deaf, I looked at him, I don’t know why he was so excited, but his ever-smiling face was frantic and thrilled as Sun just came out from obscurity and was shining on the horizon.
The breath went out from me, as I looked and saluted the rising sun. It was like, my life staring back at me. It was satisfactory, unexceptional, suasive and influential. Tides were high, which in turn were hitting the rocks beneath me, arousing a significant whiff, which I can bet on my life, is the unrivaled natural odour, loved by everyone, ‘The Mitti Ki Khushboo.’ The Red Horizon was indicator of New Day, New Journey, New Life.
It was time for a ferry ride, as We had to visit Smarak Mandapam, as decided by everyone, which was 500 meters away from the last point of country. It is called as Vivekananda’s Rock Memorial, in simpler terms. Thiruvalluvar’s massive statue is beside this state-of-the-art sanctum sanctorum.
“As an itinerant monk traveling all over India, Swami Vivekananda reached Kanyakumari in December 1892. He flung himself into the sea, and swam across the shark-infested strait and reached the top of this mid-sea rock. He spent three days here. At last his task was at an end, and then, looking back as from a mountain he embraced the whole of the India he had traversed. For more than two years earlier he had lived in a seething cauldron, consumed with a fever; he had carried a soul on fire, he was a storm and hurricane.”, the priest and follower of Vivekananda, Mr. Shastri explained us. His love for Swami was reflected back in his eyes. He progressed, “Now on this mid-sea rock, he meditated not on God but on Mother India.” “What a strange meditation!”, I passed a remark to Chinmey. Mr. Shastri saw us muttering, and looked with resentment in his eyes, but he neglected us and continued, “It was as if all the pages of India’s history opened up before him. He meditated on the past, the present and the future of India, the cause of her downfall and the means of her resurrection. He felt in his heart of hearts that India would rise only through a renewal and restoration of that highest spiritual consciousness which had made her, throughout her history, the cradle of religions and cultures.” I concurred positively and strongly on thought of his, and moved ahead near to an open location where at the confluence of three seas, I saw a mammoth statue. I asked Mr. Shastri, “who is he?”. He replied, “Saint Thiruvalluvar”. My mom was all ears to Shastri Ji, and jumped into conversation, “He has written Thirukkural. It contains verses on Love, Wealth And Virtue. Thirukkural is having 133 chapters, each having 10 verses. First 38 chapters contains his maxims on ‘Virtue’, rest 95 are for ‘Wealth’ and ‘Pleasure’.” “How on earth do you know this?”, I was shocked when Mom blabbered out all this. I recollected, she is double MA, in Hindi and Sanskrit, and above all, she is my mother, she should know about all this. Mr. Shastri was impressed, he intervened, “Excellent. Even the statue’s height is 133 feet. 95 feet is the statue, rest 38 feet is the pedestal, which signifies that Wealth and Love can be earned and enjoyed on the foundation of solid Virtue.” I nearly applaused for Mr. Shastri, but then a thought struck my mind, “Hail that Architect who had thought about this and created such an epic structure.” We moved ahead.
We were deboarding from that small rock type island, where I found this saying of Vivekananda hanging on the wall elaborating, “He who struggles is better than he who never attempts. Arise ! Awake !! And Stop Not till the Goal is reached.” I said to myself in undertone, “Aye Aye Captain !! Roger-ed that !!!”
A Backpacker's Diary 