Lots of things have happened, lots of paperwork, lots of meeting people, lots of tears and lots of goodbyes... which was a difficult part; but i sailed through.
The most amazing part in the last few weeks was an unforgettable trip that me and my friend went on; without any proper plan; without a proper place to stay at and without any clue of what we were going to do in that place... sounds irrational?? Well i beg to differ, been there and done that rite?? It was one of the most amazing, beautiful, crazy and also life threatening experiences of my life.
We decided to go to Pondicherry, a small coastal town located 3 hrs from Chennai. The entire town (its a union territory by itself) spans hardly over a few kilometers and you wouldn't realise while sight-seeing in this small but beautiful little town that at some point you have actually left the outskirts of Pondicherry and are in a different place altogether. How can i say that?? When we were lost for directions one day while sight seeing, we asked a person for the way ahead and he replied, " Go straight and you will reach Pondicherry"... What a way to realise, we were not even in the place that we were supposed to be!
Why our trip turned out to be so eventful in spite of spending just 2 days ( Believe me, 2 days is more than enough) in this place was because of the life threatening and yet life changing experience we had on the first day...
We reached Pondicherry in the morning and after having an amazing breakfast of croissants and coffee (My friend tried the classic French bread tuna sandwich but regretted it after having the first bite; saved by the croissants...) at a French pastry shop, we rented out a two-wheeler (best way to go around in Pondicherry) and went in search of a local market which is the main shopping hub of the town. Shopping hub is too fancy a name for an old, worn out stone building whose entrance is almost completely hidden by an array of two wheelers and bicycles. It took us almost an hour and half, to finally locate the entrance of the market and once we entered we knew that the place certainly shouldn't feature on anybody's sight seeing list. Its more like a place where the locals go, to buy their groceries and general household stuff... So, if you are looking for some local buys at a cheap price, this is the place...
Kinda disappointed by our first non-adventure, we went roaming around the town, just going through lanes and by-lanes, looking at the different picturesque houses which truly define the character of this quaint little French Muslim Hindu Christian town...
It is very easy to get lost in Pondicherry! The entire town is divided into the Hindu quarters, Muslim quarters, Christian quarters and The French quarter which is called 'The White Town'.. The White town is separated from the rest of the town by a canal which runs through the entire city lengthwise. Now, all the streets in this town are parallel to one another and are named differently in different parts of the town... So, the street remains the same but in the Muslim quarters it is called ' Mohammed street' but in the Christian quarters it becomes ' Mission street'.. Interesting right??? Don't worry, once you get over this, it is very simple to navigate your way along the different streets and lanes... provided you are left with that much patience and petrol!!!
The life threatening part comes now... In the later part of the evening we decided to go to Paradise beach which is only accessible by boat from a place called Chunnambar beach resort. So, we started off on our two wheeler in search of this beach resort which would further take us to our final destination... the beach! Sadly, the locals out there can be equally confused about directions like tourists... Often you will find a person telling you to go straight ahead and take a right while his hand is pointing towards left (that happened to us 3 times)... then u follow his directions and take that fateful right turn, only to be told by some wise guy that the place you are looking for is actually 5 km behind. We even came across a group of 3 people, who when asked the directions to go the beach resort gave us three different answers.. one saying it was 21km away and the other surprisingly saying it was just 5 mins. away!!! Like i said, it is very easy to get lost in Pondicherry.. so once again we were lost!
We still kept on going on the road, we thought would take us to the beach resort till it started raining.... raining like hell had broken down loose! not the rain that you see in movies where the heroine is frolicking around in her see through saris... but real actual torrential rain with thunder, lightning, all the works.... It was difficult to even see where we were going! But both of us knew one thing, we were lost! We were far away from civilization... we had gone really far in search of this beach resort. My friend was the one who was riding and it was becoming extremely impossible for her to go on... we decided to stop somewhere till the rain reduced... We turned back and started going the same way we had come from... Guess what we found?? Chunnambar beach resort: Timings - 8 am to 12 pm and 2 pm to 6 pm. We looked at our watch... it was way past 7 pm... the beach resort was closed! We were soaked by now, but we decided to wait for some time because it was no use travelling in such dangerous weather...
The rain was doing us no good, it just wouldn't stop! Me and my friend even fought during that time we were stranded under the tree outside the closed gates of the beach resort. But it was nobody's fault! All we wanted was to go back to our guest-house. We just got on the bike and went on. Even today i don't know how my friend managed to drag us both on that two wheeler ( which looked like it would give up on us any time) through that rain. We stopped every few minutes so that my friend could wipe the water off her face. Finally we managed to reach Pondicherry... at least we were in the town! Here the situation was worse... In addition to the heavy downpour, the streets were flooded with knee-high water. We got off the bike at one point and decided to wait some more for the rain to calm down. Let me tell you it was a bad idea! We were standing on the steps outside a bank, when there was a huge cracking sound and a bright flash in front of our eyes. My friend screamed her lungs out!! Yes.. we had just experienced lightning some distance away from us.... though not close enough to have had any serious injuries. But, it was frightening to the core and i still remember thanking god a million times to find me and my friend alive! Not wanting to wait there for another minute, we got on our bike and fled...
We were saved when we came across a familiar church we had seen nearby our guest-house... My friend remembered the way and literally God saved us that day!!! Somehow,we made our way to the guest-house through those water filled streets .. not helped by a bus when it came from the opposite direction and sprayed us with more water.. (as if we were not soaked enough!) Food was the need of the hour... My friend and me, found a Chinese restaurant and the sweet lady took one look at us and immediately made us feel at home!!! Nothing helps brighten one's mood other than piping hot food (the hot spicy crab soup we had could have been the best soup in the world at that time) . And nothing cheers up the mind other than booze... So we bought our quota of liqour for the night and retired to the guest-house, not to be seen till the next day...
The next day was picture perfect! I guess God decided that we had had our share of bad luck and bad rains, so he just decided to make things easy for us the second day...
We visited Auroville - a beautiful must see ashram which is a civilization in itself!!! The ashram houses the 'Maitri Mandir'- a big golden dome structure which is a meditation chamber for the people living in Auroville and a select few visitors. Believe it or not, first timers are not allowed inside the 'Maitri Mandir' at all. You have to essentially visit Auroville the second time and in order to get admittance into the meditation chamber, you have to successfully remember the date of your last visit and convince the people out there that your sole purpose of going inside the chamber is meditation, purification of the soul and literally use words which sound like a sermon from a great philosopher or mahatma...
People who live in the ashram are not those who have given up on life or those who have run away from the harsh reality of the outside world... Its merely a choice!
For eg. Why do you watch a particular movie or decide to read a certain book? Because you want to! Similarly these people want a different, more simpler way of life... Thats why they are here in the ashram... I believed this all the more when i saw a white guy in a simple kurta and pyjama, wearing a turban over his unruly dreadlocks and riding a bicycle to go to the meditation chamber... He wanted to be that person and thats why he was doing it! That was life for him...
Auroville was an amazing experience where even if you don't want to or you don't believe in it, you get in touch with your inner self and sooner or later you have that conversation with yourself about the purpose of your life... Sounds clichéd right? All i can say is, experience it for yourself...
Like i said the day was perfect. After Auroville, we went in search of Chunnambar beach resort again because we desperately wanted to visit the island beach - Paradise beach. This time we did get to the place and it was open, but we were way past the timings to go and visit the beach. Yes, the beach has timings!!! You are not allowed to go and visit the island beach after 4 pm in the evening. I guess, because it is an island beach and the only way to access it is via the beach resort, its more of a safety measure to have beach timings so that people don't get lost and have no way to come back to land!!! We still managed a boat ride from where we could see the pretty island beach looming in front of us... It was worth it anyway!
Another must see in this beautiful town is the Gothic church - Our Sacred Heart Church which is shaped in the form of a cross. The church is an architectural wonder and you would be amazed by the intricate detailing of the towers and the beautiful glass windows depicting events from the Life of Christ... By the way, this was the church we had seen the day before when we were lost in the rain... Saved by the Sacred Heart Church!
We spent our evening at the shore front in the French part of the town! Mesmerized by the waves crashing against the rocks and the beautiful moon, we thought of the same thing.. 'Does life really have to move on?'
Well, it did move on because we had big plans of having French food a.k.a Continental at one of the jazzy restaurants in the French town. We realised one important aspect after dinner, that even though it was the French part of the town and the restaurant was French enough, the chef was probably not from anywhere near France!
Our day ended and so did our short and wonderful trip to one of the most amazing places i have seen... Pondicherry! While i was packing my stuff i was reliving all the fun we had; Staying in a warm and comfortable guest-house, which had a different theme for each of its rooms (ours being, the superstar of Tamil cinema - Rajnikanth), the amazing French pastry shop where we had breakfast everyday, the rental super bike which got us through the heavy rains and the water filled streets of Pondy and never gave up on us, the kind lady from the Chinese restaurant who gave us hot food when we were soaking wet, the shore-front where we sang 'When you say nothing at all' by Ronan Keating in loud voices, getting blessed by Lakshmi- the elephant in the Ganesh Temple and so on...
Life after resignation had started on a good note and I was more than fortunate to have such a great friend with me on such an amazing journey of my life!!!
To Reva...
I'm glad I found you!!!
I know its a bit long... but it all happened!!!
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