My experiments with truth – Pondicherry

The entire week from Monday to Friday, all you do is pray for Saturday and then on Friday all of a sudden you realize that you have nothing to do. This weekend seemed to be starting off on a similar note for me….

Before you read any further, let me warn you: “Don’t read too much into the title”. I sure had a good reason for it, but I don’t seem to remember it now.

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……….. until some friends of mine call me on a trip to Pondy. Aah Pondy – the abode of Sri Aurobindo, the city of French and Portuguese architectural marvels and Auroville. Oh, and you get your booze a lot cheaper here. So, off we head in our thirst for salvation and a lot of other things that can quench your thirst.

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Initial plan: Start by 8:30 or so.
Revised plans: Start by 11
Actual start time: 12 noon (thankfully we were traveling by car).

The drive was a little more than 2 hrs, during which I had to put up with what one Mr Snoop Dogg(one of the more popular rappers in the world) had to say about life in general (listening to him you get the feeling that he was sure pissed off with a lot of things). Anyway, my pal Aravind is one of their most loyal fans and thanks to him we good an opportunity to listen to Mr Snoop. For a long time after we saw the “Welcome to Pondicherry” board, all that we saw were some huts on either side of the road. After some searching, we finally managed to locate the Tourism Development office.



Anyway, after a quick lunch (If you ever come here, make it a point to try out the continental/Italian dishes here. They have a very good variety. Great food at very nominal prices), we head to the museum. Its a small and a dilapidated building (with hardly anything worth a mention.), and we were more than happy to get out asap. We then headed to Aurobindo ashram. It’s a real calm place with a book section(but little else). Next stop was at the boating center. Once before when I had gone for this, the boatman took us to one of those private beaches (these beaches are very clean and the water around them a good shade of blue with some huts and a volleyball net), but this time we had the boat to ourselves for half and hour. The boat seemed to have made up its mind to not move, and so we were left covering a very short distance in the half hour.



Next in plan was to find a place to stay overnight and check out this shopping mall called ‘Casablanca’. After a little searching about, we found ourselves accommodation. And then decided to head to Casablanca by foot (If you’re looking to explore a place, try to walk, whenever possible. You real get a good feel of a place on a walk.) The main shopping center is very crowded (and very different from the calm in the other part of the city). The city is divided into two halves – the French and the Portuguese with the difference visible in the architectures. At around 8:30, we go for dinner. No booze around in any of the hotels, since it was election time. The liquor capital of India – and look at our timing. Although I wasn’t there when it happened, I can guess as to how the conversation between Aravind and the waiter would’ve gone.



Aravind: One whiskey.
Waiter: Sorry saar, not available. Election time.
Aravind: One beer.
Waiter: Sorry saar, not available. Election time.
Aravind: Aaarghh….Life’s not worth living. Get me some poison.
Waiter: Sorry saar, not available. Election time.
Aravind: #%^&@%#^@

Anyway, with nothing much to do, we head to the rocky beach. It’s a great feeling to be lying on the beach late into the night with the starts above you. We finally retreat to our room by 12. Next day we start by 6 in the morning and reach home by around 8. A nice trip. A good weekend getaway and some great food.