Boredom breaks…
Days were dull… time had stagnated… never-ending exams were going on n' on… everybody in my MBA class was quite tired, frustrated, anxious and desperately required a break!
& really, the repeated boredom and end of examinations were such a killing combination that it was very easily triggered by weekend holidays… and bang! We friends decided to move on for an outing… Among the different choices for the trip, from destinations for pure fun at luxurious resorts to places of natural wonders to pure historical/ tourism type places, one place really caught out attention… Pondicherry or now renamed as Puducherry!
Located on the Southern part of India on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal and bound by Tamil Nadu on the North, West and South; Pondicherry the little Union Territory lies in the eastern side of the Indian Peninsula.
Even after spending 1.5 yrs in Bangalore, I hadn't have got chance to visit any place towards south of Bangalore. So, I readily joined the gang of boys.
Haunting overnight journey…
And, the wheel started rolling… It was 4 p.m. by which Manas, Ankur, Saurabh, Abhishek started planning for the trip and a Qualis for transport was quickly arranged. By 9:30 p.m., we had left the hostel for Pondicherry…
Before leaving, I glanced through the web pages to get some information about Pondicherry. Most of the information looked quite okay. I joined the team just to chill out, and not expecting much from the place. But, over the next two days, I was going to be proved wrong. There were going to be tons of surprises over the entire journey…
With uncommon friends coming together, it was really unusual group from my MBA class. Though we have been together in a class, sometimes we tend to be within sub-groups, the close-nit groups with whom we are most comfortable and lose the opportunities to gain from other individuals, their experiences...
Around 9:30 p.m., we crossed the never ending traffic thro' the "Electronic city", the focal point of Bangalore IT. An hour of wait at the Tamilnadu entry check post and cup of tea permitted us enter the state of Tamilnadu near Hosur. National Highway No. 7 has a unique significance, as it runs cross-country from Varanasi to Kanyakumari. Excellent state highway led us to Krishnanagar via Hosur and we followed NH-66 further to Pondicherry. From Krishnanagar, one can travel to Chennai following NH4. Again, NH4 has a special place in my mind, as it touches my home-town Pune. Okee… enough about the highways…
As we entered NH-66, suddenly the environment started changing… We were surrounded by different style of rock & hills. Chilling air and rocking songs in the Qualis overjoyed us. I could sense smell of fresh mango flowers (mohor, in Marathi) from the surrounding farms. It was a single lane road with periodic potholes, slowing down our speed. We were enjoying the journey with the road, turning gently through thick trees and small villages around.
It was 2:30 a.m. We stopped by a tea shop. Here, the chai-wala was preparing tea in different style. A very concentrated tea syrup was already prepared that contained some milk as well. While serving the tea, the chai-wala was adding hot milk to the concentrate through a long filter. It was nice to notice such small differences, unique to the land. Though we were just 100 km away from Bangalore, the villages in Tamilnadu immediately had entirely different look and feel, not much resembling with Kannada village.
It was indeed a long overnight journey covering 350 km to reach Pondicherry. Our driver was also now tired....
Pondicherry Calling, "Le copain bienvenu, détendent maintenant…" (Welcome buddy, relax now...)
I sensed that the Qualis had stopped somewhere… Oh… I didn't know when I had slept during the long travel and here I was, already in Pondicherry. It was clearly a different environment around us - clean roads, white-gray colored buildings clearly forming the ambience of the city.
The land does not promise a stock of monuments, as we travel to Pondicherry. Despite being a seaside resort, it is different from typical beach resorts. The history of modern Pondicherry began with the arrival of the French in 1673. It became a part of Indian Union in 1954. The French air still wanders around the city streets, across the buildings…
No room available in Pondicherry!
The very first view of the sea refreshed us. We hoped to find place in one of the beach resorts. On the Chennai road, we visited every sea side resort available. One needs to book room in advance, to stay in any one of the beach resorts. Apart from the decent Banyan Beach Resort, all other resorts like Hotel Ashok (ITDC), Kailash Beach Resort, The Dune (Beach Resort) were extremely costly. Due to the weekend rush of tourists, none of the resort had any vacancy. Finally, we gave up after couple of hours' search and got rooms in a very boring lodge in the heart of the city. Apparently, everybody was dissatisfied to stay in such lodge, but the same place was going to be very beneficial further. For next couple of hours, we slept as if we hadn't have sleep since ages… But, we had no choice but to start with the sightseeing ASAP. With some shopping of T-shirts & shorts, everybody geared up for the Fun under the Sun @ the Sea!
And, Delicious food welcomes us at Beach...
We slowly traveled to the Auroville beach, exploring Pondicherry. Pondicherry is a typical south Indian Tamilian city, but with distinct French flavor. The Auroville Beach, as the name suggests, is close to Auroville. It is right opposite the road leading to Auroville. The beach is located around 12 km from the main Puducherry town. We entered Hotel Muthu and literally were thrilled with the wooden huts, benches, home-made simple tasty food, sea food. If you are planning Pondicherry trip well in advance, this is the place to stay. The ambience absolutely refreshed our minds. Just before 18-20 hours, everybody was dull; but now we were in an entirely different world, in a mood as if we had been having fun time since weeks. We relaxed, chatted. Everybody had started enjoying the entire experience.
Auroville Beach…
Although the ambience at the hotel was great, now the sea was pulling us. We ran towards the sea and here it came roaring, welcoming us with thousands of waves. I was taking "darshan" of the Bay of Bengal for the first time. One wave followed another, without tiring for a moment. Every time I visit any seashore – Atlantic at Atlantic City, Pacific at California, Gulf of Mexico next to Galveston - Houston, Pensacola beach Florida, Arabian sea next to Kokan,… every time, the ocean has something different to offer, has its own identity.
Here, in Pondicherry it was great to see something really big. The massive scale of sea teaches us humility. It was hard to believe that the very same sea has potential of mass destruction, remember the mass-destruction by Tsunami! But, still it was offering a lot to everybody – fishermen, tourists, trade, rain water…
Pondicherry beach is known for shallow waters and small waves, making this an ideal place for swimming. The beaches here are relatively clean and less crowded. Activity is not the highlight of a Pondicherry tour. Come here to roam about, feel the spirit and be charmed. This beach with its serene surroundings was an ideal place to laze away our day. Mangroves were quite less, but the entire coast was full of coconut trees. Climate was surprisingly extremely pleasant. We were expecting lot of humidity, but cool breezes welcomed us. Sarabjeet took nice pictures of all of us, while we played for hours in the sand, with the waves, jumped, danced, played volleyball, cracked jokes, and enjoyed every bit of the company of friends and the sea...
To Auroville, the 'City of Down'...
Further, we moved to visit the Auroville, main tourist attraction in Pondicherry. Lot of foreigners were traveling on the road on second-hand bikes, mopeds – quite a funny site, it was. A small road thro' lush greenery led us to the entry gate of Auroville. Auroville is set in a rural landscape of narrow lanes, deep red earth and lush greenery. It was 4 p.m. and we wouldn't have been allowed visiting "the Globe of the Matri Mandir" after 4:30 p.m. So, we ran madly amid green jungle on the jungle tracks.
Auroville was conceived as a utopian paradise by the Mother, the spiritual successor of Sri Aurobindo. The idea was to build a futuristic city where people of goodwill would live together in peace and harmony. Around 1900 people live in communes and sustain themselves by involving themselves in agriculture, handicrafts, alternative technology, educational and development projects including Aurolec, a computer software company.
During the inauguration ceremony of Auroville on 28th February 1968, the soil of 124 countries was poured into a lotus-shaped an urn, to symbolize universal oneness. This urn is today kept in the Matri Mandir. This spherical marble chamber has a crystal placed inside it (believed to be the largest of its kind in the world), reflecting the suns rays. The concentrated light acts as a focal point to aid mediation.
We then visited the Visitor Centre at Auroville and tried to understand the history and philosophy of the settlement, various projects and activities undertaken by the community...
An evening @ Pondicherry Promenade...
The 1.5 km long promenade (walkway) running along the beach is the pride of Puducherry. We strolled on the sea front visiting several land marks, the War memorial, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, old light house, local carnival, the old customs house, lot of crowd and amazing sea spread up to horizon...
After a descent south Indian dinner, we surely deserved deep sleep. Next day, lots of surprises were waiting for us…
Heavenly sunrise @ the beach...
The sea being on the Eastern side of the city, the sunrise was certainly not worth missing. Tejas & I got up very early and rushed to the beach. We were staying at a place in the heart of city, so we took a walk to the beach. Old French style buildings, churches and museums, tree-lined boulevards along the seashore reminded us of a bygone era. In Pondicherry, history still lingers in its buildings and boulevards. The French legacy is evident in its landscaped town and imposing churches. People travel to Pondicherry because of its ambience. The Laidback Township, pristine beach and the palm trees swaying in breeze were bringing a slice of serenity...
Now, we were waiting eagerly for the sunrise… We waited, waited and waited and here came out the Lord, shining n' blessing the World! A perfect "Saakshatkar" Sunrise at Pondicherry! Since I come from the western part of India, this was the first time, I watched Sun rising from the Sea. The only sound we were hearing was from the waves crashing against the rocks and the chirping of the birds!
Sri Aurobindo Samadhi soothes the mind and soul…
My parents and sisters were quite excited knowing that I had been visiting Pondicherry. So, they had been insisting me visiting the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The tight schedule of the trip would not have allowed us finding and visiting the Ashram. Visiting Pondicherry and not visiting the Ashram would have bothered me a lot. I desperately wanted visiting the Ashram...
Tejas & I were wandering through the lanes and roads of the city. We were appreciating the French style of construction. Name plates and road names were still in French. I recollected my memories of the city of New Orleans, USA which is again a French colony and has similar French flavor across the city.
I noticed a board mentioning "Aurobindo Ashram post office". It was clearly evident that we were very near the ashram. And yes, the Ashram was just few footsteps away from us. I was really delighted. I really believe that if you have very, very strong desire to do something, call it "Sankalp", you can really achieve it! My "Sankalp" was fruitful! I could really reach and visit the Ashram...
The Samadhi is located in the Ashram where Sri Aurobindo and the Mother worked for many years. Ashram is one of the most well known and wealthiest ashrams in India. The Ashram was set up in 1926 by Sri Aurobindo Ghose (pronounced and often written as Ghosh), one of India's greatest philosopher-poets, who originally came to Pondicherry to escape persecution by the British. It was after arriving in Pondicherry, that he was drawn into the spiritual realm and discovered the power of yoga. His philosophy deeply rooted in yoga and his writings inspired a number of followers.
The ashram's influence can be felt in most of Puducherry. The main ashram building is where the mortal remains of Aurobindo and the Mother are kept. Their 'Samadhi' or mausoleum, which is generally surrounded by supplicating devotees, is in the central courtyard under a frangipani tree and is covered daily with flowers.
Message given by "the Mother", engraved on Sri Aurobindo Samadhi: "To Thee who hast been the material envelope of our Master, to Thee our infinite gratitude. Before Thee who hast done so much for us, who hast worked, struggled, suffered, hoped, endured so much, before Thee who hast willed all, attempted all, prepared, achieved all for us, before Thee we bow down and implore that we may never forget, even for a moment, all we owe to Thee."
More surprises follow… found the unique Ganesh Mandir - Manakula Vinayagar Koil…
While checking information about Pondicherry, I had read about Manakula Vinayagar Koil, a 300 year old Ganesh temple. Just next to the Ashram, we found this Ganesh Mandir as well. It has a golden spire and walls portraying forty different forms of Ganesha. The temple also has a smaller shrine dedicated to Lord Murugan (Kartikeya), who is Ganesha's brother. The temple compound also plays host to 'Lakshmi', the temple elephant, who uses her trunk to dispense blessings and to collect coins from the devotees.
Paradise beach comes last; but rejuvenates the entire experience of the trip...
With the rich paybacks from unexpected surprises of sunrise at the beach, visits to Aurobindo Ashram & Ganesh Mandir, I wouldn't have expected any more returns over and above this breakeven. But, biggest delight of the trip was still ahead - Paradise Beach! After traveling 8 km from the town, we reached the Chunnambar Resort along the Cuddalore Main Road.
At the resort, overnight stay within the tree-houses on the backwater banks can provide a relishing experience of the great outdoors. But, even this resort did not attract us here. The Chunnambar backwater and paradise beach were really the magnets that pulled us to the place.
It was absolutely fascinating to notice a very narrow line of beach at a distance in front of us – the Paradise beach. Paradise beach is a very narrow blade of elevation separating Chunnambar backwater and the Bay of Bengal. Flanked by a quiet flowing creek on one side, the beach can only be accessed by boat. The beach at Chunnambar, also known as Plage Paradiso, is located near the mouth of the backwater. The sand is pristine and the water is clean. It's an ideal place for sun bathing and beach sports.
A ferry boat took us thro' the backwater. The backwater was quite shallow, very quiet and protected as compared the free sea facing the south-east Asia. A motor-boat slowly sailed us to Paradise beach. The slow journey ensured that we enjoyed the fresh and relaxed breezes, company of buddies, thick wall of coconut trees, an old stone temple, adding unique flavor to portrait - entire feel as if we were visiting Kerala backwaters. Every moment was sooo enjoyable, that we had been completely engrossed in the surroundings.
Noticeably, the Paradise beach is just at the most 10 feet above the sea level. So, even if we are on the backwater side and though the sea is behind the beach, we are easily able to watch the sea roaring, dancing towards the Paradise beach…. A fantastic site, certainly!
Few fishermen at a distance were fighting with the waves - perfectly orchestrated efforts to sail through the sea! It was told that a short, pleasant cruise into the sea from here could reward the tourists with the memorable sight of playful dolphins in natural habitat, horsing around. There was a very small shallow portion of beach where the sea was penetrating to the land, creating the entire backwater behind the Paradise beach. This place offered a unique collage of AMAZING soft sand, colors, water, trees at Paradise beach – a complete delight!
We reached the Paradise beach and actually could not believe our eyes. An completely virgin beach – lonely, clean without any footsteps, crystal clear water, delicate and extra soft sand, deep blue sea with its eternal boundaries,… Ohh ho, we just went mad looking at the site. We are seldom lucky in our life to be at such places. My 5 senses were too weak to "feel" the ambience in totality. So, I took deep breath to feel the entire mahol (ambience) and thanked the Lord to make trip to such heavenly place possible.
We strolled, jumped, danced, played, laughed, rejoiced, and went totally crazy… The perpetual waves never missed a single chance to wipe out the foot-prints and kept its beach as if nothing ever happened there, nobody ever visited the place. I wondered – In our life, can't we learn something from these waves? Can't we forget about the past and start again with clean slate? Why do we keep cribbing about the damages done to us due to the unsought events? Yes, it is certainly in our hands to make use of present, use present to move on…
Memories to cherish forever…
And, rest of journey was just icing on the cake! Super-fast journey back to Bangalore, thanks to the convoy of vehicles of the minister we chased; full-stomach awesome lunch at the Dhaba, as if we haven't had food for years, the haunting songs in the Qualis, road-side rocky hills, ruins of old forts, crops…. Everything was too good and total fun!
To summarize, a trip that won't be easily forgotten for years!
Pondicherry rocks!
To be precise, we explored the Heaven, also known as Pondicherry!
