A holy trip
A trip to Velankani is always memorable. It brings back memories of a childhood where a summer vacation meant a trip to the holy shrine at Velankani. Those who don’t know about Velankani it is the equivalent of Tirupati for all Christians and has the shrine of Mother Mary. It is situated on the shores of the Indian Ocean and falls within the Nagapattinam district (remember Tsunami?).
We usually used to visit the place in summer and its probably the worst time to be in Velankani. A combination of heat and humidity will suck you dry and if that doesn’t, the salty water will. Actually that’s one of the first few things that will hit you - the weather and the water. You have to survive on bottled water only and the weather you can’t do much about it.
Now when you would like to plonk yourself on a nice cushiony bed of a hotel room after a tiring journey, you will be in for another surprise. Like any other pilgrimage the hotel rooms are not something that you would rave about. Infact some of them don’t have a geyser or a/c and the rooms are pretty small for the price they charge. Room service is an alien concept in those parts of the world. Anyway, the need was ours and we had to live with what we had and moreover the mindset was that we were on a pilgrimage and not on a leisure trip to the Bahamas.
After a visit to the church and performing the ritualistic prayers, we would be ready to dive into a nice hot meal. In this respect we were a bit lucky and thanks to our culinary preferences. This place can be a Non-vegetarians delight. You’ll get all kinds of sea food and even some unheard of dishes. As a child and even now the only thing I really relish is the food. I pity all those who prefer vegetarian food.
All in all it’s a place where you shouldn’t plan to spend more than a day. Because that’s all there is to that place. But yet everytime I visit that place there’s a strange bonding and sense of déjàvu that I was never able to explain.
We usually used to visit the place in summer and its probably the worst time to be in Velankani. A combination of heat and humidity will suck you dry and if that doesn’t, the salty water will. Actually that’s one of the first few things that will hit you - the weather and the water. You have to survive on bottled water only and the weather you can’t do much about it.
Now when you would like to plonk yourself on a nice cushiony bed of a hotel room after a tiring journey, you will be in for another surprise. Like any other pilgrimage the hotel rooms are not something that you would rave about. Infact some of them don’t have a geyser or a/c and the rooms are pretty small for the price they charge. Room service is an alien concept in those parts of the world. Anyway, the need was ours and we had to live with what we had and moreover the mindset was that we were on a pilgrimage and not on a leisure trip to the Bahamas.
After a visit to the church and performing the ritualistic prayers, we would be ready to dive into a nice hot meal. In this respect we were a bit lucky and thanks to our culinary preferences. This place can be a Non-vegetarians delight. You’ll get all kinds of sea food and even some unheard of dishes. As a child and even now the only thing I really relish is the food. I pity all those who prefer vegetarian food.
All in all it’s a place where you shouldn’t plan to spend more than a day. Because that’s all there is to that place. But yet everytime I visit that place there’s a strange bonding and sense of déjàvu that I was never able to explain.