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A Ganesh Nadar in Rameswaram
Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu is famous as a pilgrim centre -- and, now, as the place where President A P J Abdul Kalam hails from.
It falls in the Ramanathapuram district. Decades ago, Kilakaraj, another village in the same district, was famous. For another of its son, Haji Mastaan.
An island on Tamil Nadu's south-eastern coast, Rameswaram comprises a town panchayat -- of the same name -- and two village panchayats: Thangachi Madam and Pamban.
Two bridges connect it to the mainland. One is for the railways, the other a road.
The centre of attraction in this town is a huge Shiva temple, around which all activities revolve.
Rameswaram has a population of 37, 900. To every 1,000 men, there are only 920 women. There are 8,750 houses here. Of this, 4,570 are huts, 800 tiled houses, and 1,800 terraced ones. The rest 1,580 -- well, Rameswaram's records are not that up-to-date.
There are two higher secondary and three matriculation schools here. And 15 elementary schools and one college. There is one engineering college in Ramanathapuram, another in Kilakarai.
There is one hospital, two police stations, and one fire station in Rameswaram. There is a television relay station, which, according to the residents, is the highest tower in the country.
The Rameswaram railway station links the town to Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai. The tracks are still meter gauge.
The nearest helipad at Uchipulli belongs to the Indian Navy. There is a Coast Guard station in Mandapam. The nearest airport is at Madurai 170km away.
Rameswaram has a fishing harbour. From Dhanushkodi, there was a regular ferry service to Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka. But this stopped when the ethnic war started in the island nation. Dhanushkodi is yet to recover from the economic blow that loss spurred off.
Consequently, it does not look part of a nation that has enjoyed freedom for 55 years. Roads stop 8km away, at Mundramchatram, after which you need to take a jeep. The nearest electricity pole is 18km away. There are no phones, no hospital. The water supply is for only two hours a day.
Old-timers say Dhanushkodi was a beautiful place, thriving with activity. A cyclone devastated it in 1964, after which it has not been rebuilt.
Sri Lankan refugees land here regularly, from where they are taken to the mainland and lodged in the Mandapam refugee camp before being transferred elsewhere.
In a way it is ironical: earlier, this was where Indian Tamils had landed, fleeing from Sri Lankans. Now Sri Lankan Tamils are landing here, fleeing from Sinhaleese.
The census does not show the religious divide here, but locals say there are roughly 10 per cent Muslims and 30 per cent Christians. The rest are Hindus.
A guesthouse, at an estimated expense of around 3.7 million, is now coming up in Rameswaram. A park by the sea, too, is in the pipeline. Roads are being tarred - estimated cost: 1.3 million -- and four more shops will come up in the bus station shortly.
The revival of the ferry service would kick-start Rameswaram's economy. The residents are disappointed that though the government has announced a service from Tuticorin to Colombo, there has been no effort to restart the one from Dhanushkodi.
The Sethusamudram project is meant to provide a passage for ships along the east coast to Kanyakumari. Big ships now take a detour around Sri Lanka to go to ports on India's west coast. If the project is implemented, Rameswaram will benefit the most.
Fishermen say their biggest problem is the Sri Lankan Navy. It aggravated after then prime minister Indira Gandhi gave away Katcvhathievu to Sri Lanka. Now, every time Indian fishermen go anywhere near Kathchathievu, the navy fires upon them or arrest them.
"Our land, we gave them, and they fire upon us," people say. "Can you imagine? Sri Lanka is even smaller than our one state, Tamil Nadu, and they fire upon us with impunity! And that too after we gave them Katchathievu."
Only this week, they say, did the Lankan authorities release 12 fishermen. The arrests of fishermen are -- the navy's claim is they thought they were fighters of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam -- common, the locals say.
And their release is a time-consuming process, according to them. If someone goes missing, his relatives complain to the taluka office, which would inform the fisheries department. Officials there would pass on the message to their superiors in Chennai. From there, it gets relayed to the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi, and then on to Colombo -- and thus, by the time the arrested are released, their families would have given them up for dead.
But they still go to fish, for they know no other vocation.
The residents of Rameswaram hope they will see better days soon -- now that one of their own is the First Citizen of India.
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