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{mosimage}It all germinated spontaneously during a Google chat with vaithy when he was in Abu Dhabi, all gearing up for an annual vacation... just a line in Google Chat that read like this - 'Mahesh, Kutralam Polama?'. I lapped p the suggestion instantly and booked the train tickets via IRCTC website (http://www.irctc.co.in). My South Tamil Nadu friends suggested me to book ticket to Thenkasi which is nearer to Kutralam. Fortunately all the tickets to Thenkasi Express were sold out for that day. Did I mis-spell as 'Fortunately'? No, I mean it. So I booked tickets upto Thirunelveli. You can find it in the further paragraphs. The 'D-day' was nearing. The rains started lashing out Chennai and Pondicherry. Everybody started ridiculing me for undertaking a trip at this time. I stood firm in my decision of travelling down south this time, no matter how severe the rain is.

Journey Starts

4th January 2007, 5:25 PM - Egmore - Train No. 2612 Chennai Kanyakumari Express.. I ran across the long platform to get into my coach. May be I have been travelling from Chennai Central always, Egmore was a new experience for me. The train started moving, rain was intermittent.. Seems my co-passengers discovered that they were a part of a common friend's circle, a reunion sort of... I didn't want to disturb them, so gave my lower berth allocation to them and opted for a peaceful upper berth. Retired to bed with a copy of my new favourite magazine - Men's Health India. Vaithy is supposed to join me at Trichy junction, which will be around 10:40 PM. Train proceeded with a gentle vibration that was complemented by a new playlist in my phone walkman... Life is incomplete without music.

Vaithy, his brother-in-law Narasimhan along with Ramar joined in the Trichy station. Previously in the train, I have SMSed Vaithy to get Masala Dosai for me and he did it. After exchanging pleasantries, they got into their compartment and I returned to mine. We are expected to reach Thirunelveli by 4:40 AM. Surprisingly the train was at the scheduled time in all stages.

In a sharp contrast to raining Northern Tamilnadu, it was warm in Thirunelveli. Vaithy suggested taking a room near the junction and sleep for a while. Reluctantly I gave in because I wanted to stay at Kutralam tonight. But he turned to be wise in choosing Thirunelveli as a stop-over destination. There is a Hotel Vasantham nearer to it and we got two rooms for four of us. Slept well till 9:30 AM and were getting ready to start to Kutralam. The Thirunelveli Bus Station is right opposite to the Hotel Vasantham. So we carried just a set of dress for changing after bathing in the falls. We had our breakfast in the restaurant of Vasantham itself.

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