Dhanushkodi Calling
Ever since I read in a Sunday supplement about the erstwhile Indo- Srilanka rail route and the ‘Boat Mail Express’ train from Madras to Colombo , my heart and mind wanted to see the Indian end point of that train journey. So, on a weekend of March 2022, my 'other half' and I packed our bags to a very unlikely destination in any of the tourist maps – Dhanushkodi. Boat mail express or Indo Ceylon Express train was a steamer ferry service between India and Sri Lanka connecting Chennai and Colombo, by a rail-to-sea-to-rail operation. Passengers could buy a single ticket for this international journey through rail and ferry. This train takes passengers from Chennai To Dhanushkodi, then ferries the passengers to Thalimannar in Sri Lanka, and then another train takes them to Colombo. Dhanushkodi, a ghost town today shrouded in mystery is located in the Rameshwaram district of Tamil Nadu. It is t...