Its wonderful that a place like it exists on this planet

We made it to Pondicherry about 5 in the morning… I was partially asleep and just followed ppl where ever they went . We had to meet Vidya’s friend and went in search of the place we were staying. We ended up in the outskirts of the city(about 6km from the city) and thats when we realized that there was another place with the same name in the city. Thej called up Rajesh(Vidya’s friend) and realized that Rajesh was actually at the bus stand itself. This thing of reaching a place then retuning became a pattern in the trip.

Pondicherry is a very beautiful place… Its history and culture are incredibly rich and you are just exposed to the culture it adapted thanks to its previous residents. The area we stayed in was beautiful, just 5 min from the beach(by walk), nice roads and very clean. 15th Aug, India’s Independence day also happens to be Sri Aurobindo’s birthday. All hotels in Pondicherry were booked and we ended up staying in a dormitory which was nice in its own way. Sid was not feeling great at the start of the trip and it got worse in Pondi. He was fully bedridden and saw nothing other than the inside of the room. He had viral fever and cost him almost the entire trip.

Our stay in Pondicherry constituted almost of 70% of visiting different Ashrams in the city. We had our breakfast and lunch in the Ashram and leaving Thug nobody actually enjoyed the porridge and brown bread. Lunch was much better for us as we hardly took time with the rice and sambar. We visited the cloth mills and paper factories. We bought a little merchandise in the stores filled with scented candles and incense sticks. It was lunch time when we finally ended our tour.

We visited Auroville during the afternoon. The concept of Auroville sounds great and its wonderful that a place like it exists on this planet. Auroville also boasts of its amazing beauty… let it be the well constructed buildings or the thick lush trees that surronds the place. In the evening we walked to the beach and played a little in the water. I hv always thought beaches are the most calming places and always felt that ppl who live near the sea are truly blessed. Having lived all my life in landlocked Bangalore it was a pleasure to spend sometime in the ocean water. We played in the water until sunset and walked back to our room. Links to Photo Galleries: Theju: Gallery and FlickrMine: Gallery and Flickr Haas wrote on August 24, 2006 at 3:49 pm Sand, Sea and Fun - Trip to Pondy and Chennai