Pondicherry

Pondicherry was the first stop of my 42 day trip - Didn't think it would be this long when I started out :)

I took the overnight Mangalore-Puducherry Weekly Superfast Express train from Kozhikode to Pondicherry. I stayed with my friend Sid and his family - and I have to give them a special shout out for being the most homely hosts of all times! Had such a fun time with Shraddha and enjoyed chatting away with Preethi auntie :)

On Day 1, after a quick shower and some food in my belly (courtesy of Sid), I set off on a longggg walk. At the end of the day I tracked a grand total of 10 miles (a PR for me!), so feel free to use other forms of transport if your not really a walking person!

I first headed to the Botanical garden. Though not a botany enthusiast myself, this was a huge place which was calm and peaceful with a bunch of benches and a great place to just sit with your own thoughts. I spoke on the phone with a friend for an hour while I sat in the grass here and then spent some time journaling before I realised I couldn't spend the entire day at just one spot.

Next, I got up and headed towards Rock beach, on my way I passed a bunch of parks (Pondi seems to have a lot of these!), tonnes of interesting buildings. The architecture of most of these buildings in White Town seemed to be deeply influenced by the multitudes of cultural influences the place had experienced over the years - The Brits, the French and the Dutch in addition to the local Tamil population.

As the name suggests Rock Beach is guarded by huge black rocks - great to sit on and enjoy the view. I spent an hour or so here, before I decided I needed to head back home.

The next morning I left around 9 to head to Auroville - the famous experimental town just on the outskirts of Pondicherry. I took a bus from Pondicherry Bus stand which dropped me on Auroville main road. I asked a stoned man (my bad!) how I could get to Auroville and he told me it was a 1.5 km walk from here. Knowing how much I had walked yesterday, this seemed to be nothing, so I decided to walk. Also, it's a good idea to keep in mind that Pondicherry is best seen using a private vehicle. If you didn't bring your own, I would suggest renting one; Don't be delusional like me on your walking abilities or worse, get ripped off by auto-wallahs.

Anyways, back to the story. Around 2 km's in upon not seeing any visible signs on nearing Auroville, I spotted two old men in the veranda of a shop chatting away. I walked up to them and asked them the way to Auroville. They explained to me that the start of Auroville was another 5km's down the road, and asked me how I got there. After I explained my situation, one of them agreed to drop me on his scooter. Knowing, there was barely any other public transport option, I thanked him and jumped on. Special shout out to Kalyana-Ramasundaram uncle. When I asked him why he decided to help out a stranger, he told me, I reminded him of his own daughter. Interactions like these are what make me travel :))

Finally, I had made it to Auroville - the seemingly Utopian town I'd heard so much about for the past 10 years or so. I have to say, I don't think it really lived up to my extremely high expectations. Since the start of the pandemic, entry inside the Matrimandir is now restricted to Aurovillans (Is that what you call them?).

I had heard the the food is great at Auroville. Even that was quite the disappointment. Nothing you wouldn't get at a fast food chain like Subway, but obviously overpriced.

After a bunch of walking around the place, I was finally done with Auroville. The tiredness from all of the walking of the past two days started hitting me. I took an auto back to Pondicherry, as I had booked a cycling tour of the heritage sites for 4pm. I got to my starting point an hour earlier so I walked around and found a Baskin Robbins around the corner where I enjoyed my favourite ice cream flavour (since I was six years old) - Mint chocolate chip, till it was time for the cycle tour.

At the starting point I was received warmly by Venkat - my charming cycling tour guide. He gave me a run-through of briefly how the colonies were built about and then took me to a real current day establishment of each of the below mentioned quarters.

It was interesting to see how till current day those areas have still remained under the same religious compositions, though they are merely divided by streets. The cycling tour was probably my favourite experience in Pondicherry. I think it's a great way to see a city and the experience was made even better on having a delightful and knowledgeable guide.

After a tiring day, I returned back to Sid's house to be greeted by some great home cooked comfort food, before I retired for the night. The next morning, Shraddha and Aunty were up and running by 6:30 am, since it was a school day. Since, I'd leave before Shraddha was back, I decided to wake up so say my goodbyes.

Once Preethi auntie was back, I had a long conversation with her about her life, our recent losses, how her Malayali family got to Pondicherry and much more. Quite an interesting life she's had. Before I knew it, I was running late for my bus. I quickly showered and rushed to the bus stop with Sid, who kindly agreed to accompany me on my walk to the bus stop and see me off. Unfortunately my bus to Chennai was running late by over 40 minutes, but Sid waited it out with me, so it didn't seem like long :)

In the meanwhile, I started spiralling because I realised, I was probably not going to make it in time, for my train from Chennai, as I was already cutting it close with the timings, even if the bus reached on time.

Update: I got my train :D