Sun, sand and serenity

Our weekly trips had been given more than a month-long break after a number of cancelled plans and friends cancelling plans. Finally we decided to pack our bags for Pondicherry unheeding of who decided to accompany us. Pondicherry had been in my to-be-visited list for quite some time, and hence a significant part of the research was already done (courtesy Lonely planet, Tripadvisor and to some extent Wikitravels). However our last moment preparations did not give us much of a choice with hotels. We hired a Sumo, booked a hotel as a make-shift option if nothing else was available and off we were on the night of 21st October 2011. After picking up all seven of us, we could only head out of Bangalore a little past midnight. We went through Krishnagiri and took the NH-66 route which is very dark and bumpy and we engaged ourselves in narrating ghost stories which seemed the most apt thing to do. It took us close to 10 hours to cover a distance of less than 350 kms, with all our breaks on the way.

We reached Pondicherry at almost 10 in the morning. I was in awe of the beauty and tranquility of the place. The turquoise water, the silvery sand, the blue sky with white cottony clouds jutting out of it was absolutely soothing to the eyes in spite of the scorching sun. The number of shades of blue on offer was unbelievable! We checked into Asian Sea View  Guest House, just overlooking the sea. It was a small, no-frills hotel but for the location. It was on the Serenity Beach and the Promenade, at a stone’s throw distance from the Pondicherry Ashram, the boulevard and some of the well-known restaurants like Le Café, Le Club, Rendezvous. It was a two-storey hotel with a suite on the top floor and a terrace attached to it offering a panoramic view of the sun-kissed beach.

We dropped our luggage, freshened up in a haste and were off to Auroville or the ‘City of Dawn’. This place is closely associated with Shri Aurobindo and the Mother, built with the purpose of realizing human unity across the globe. The exhibition center, the cafeteria and the Matri Mandir or meditation hall have a charm of their own. The 1 km walk leading to the Matri Mandir with its red soil, the stalls selling bric-a-bracs, large shady, banyan trees and finally the golden globe (the Matri Mandir) is an experience in itself. We were not allowed to enter the meditation hall though, since a permission is required 2 days in advance to visiting it.

The heat, the walk and our starving tummies had left us exhausted by then. So we went back to our hotel to try what Pondicherry is famous for - food! Pondicherry is known as a ‘foodie’s fantasy’ with its wide variety of cuisines on offer from French to Italian, Chinese to Vietnamese, Punjabi to Bengali and as far as your imagination can run. We ate at Le Club near the Ashram, which served mouth-watering French fare. Then after revitalizing ourselves, we hit the beach straight. It is not a beach where you can take bath, with all the boulders and a rough, raging sea, but that does the trick of keeping the water sparkling blue. We stood there for a while taking in the sound, smell and sight of the sea while looking at a breathtaking sunset. We took a walk along the 1.5 kms stretch of the Promenade with its clean roads, palm trees and bordered by cozy French buildings on one side and the sea on the other. As it grew darker, there was a plethora of activities among tourists from spending a relaxed evening with family, to skating, shopping at the stalls along the beach or lazing around at one of the nice little restaurant or café. We had some snacks at Le Café and went to the famous Rendezvous for dinner. The night was slow and relaxing. Sitting on our terrace we had a few drinks letting the feel of Pondicherry set in.

With all the drinks the previous night, I was unfortunately not able to get up early in the morning to watch the sunrise. It was a lazy morning, with us having breakfast at Le Café and cycling along the sleepy lanes and turns of  the Promenade. We checked out of the hotel at noon and headed for the Sunday Market or Grand Bazaar at the cutting point of Jawaharlal Nehru street and M.G. road. There is a Hidesign seconds shop there where you can find some really cool bags at throw away prices. After we were done with our shopping, we went to Chunnambar Beach for a boat cruise. The boat took us through the backwaters from Chunnambar to Paradise Beach. The view was mesmerizing with clear water, glimpses of flying fish, coconut trees on both sides and a French-manor kind of building in the far end. Paradise beach was perfect for taking a bath in the sea. And what is a travel to a coastal area if you can’t take bath in the sea? So we changed into our beach clothes and made a straight dive into the water. It was an amazing experience with a rainbow on one side, the dark clouds approaching us and the waves crashing on the beach. Then it started raining and we were totally thrilled fighting with the waves and the rain. Finally after having a bad lunch at Paradise beach, we took the last ferry back to Chunnambar Beach at 5.30 p.m. After reaching Chunnambar Beach, we started our journey back to Bangalore.

Bidding adieu to Pondicherry was not easy. Pondicherry has a life of its own which is so unique to any of the other beaches in India. The laid back lifestyle, the French influence, the pristine beaches, the slumberous by-lanes tell a story of its own which is so involving, it makes you fall in love with the place. Of all the places I have travelled, no other place made me feel so strongly that I would want to stay back at the place for a few more days.

Book review - Palace of Illusions

Recently I laid my hands on the novel ‘Palace of Illusions’ by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Not having read the Mahabharata before, on which it is based on, I was apprehensive about reading this book. But once I started reading, it was very difficult to put down. It narrates the great epic Mahabharata in Draupadi’s voice, whom Divakaruni prefers to call Panchali. The novel traces Panchali’s life, beginning with her magical birth in fire as the daughter of a king before following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father’s kingdom. Panchali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at the brothers’ sides through years of exile and a terrible civil war. Meanwhile, we never lose sight of her stratagems to take over control of her household from her mother-in-law, her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna, or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husband’s most dangerous enemy. Panchali is a fiery female voice in a world of warriors, gods, and ever-manipulating hands of fate.

By looking at the Mahabharata from a feminist perspective, Divakaruni has given the epic a new dimension altogether. The characters have been very well etched out which makes the reader enter into a personal relationship with the characters where you hate some and you empathize with some. The myriad of relationships, their complexities, the love and hatred, power and passion, respect and revenge has been effectively captured in this work of fiction. In short, it is “a lyrical tale imbued with the scent of ancient incense yet rooted in modern day relevancy.”

My first blog

I am starting my blog today, not because I have a lot to write or share but because someone asked me to. I don’t know whether he will ever read my blog or whether I will ever be able to tell him about it. But I still thought it would be a good idea to start writing. That would make life a little more worthwhile, doing something substantive, something more than just slogging five days a week and waiting for the weekend to come. In spite of that I have a happy life. Touch wood. I am a HAPPY SOUL, you see!

I do not crib, I do not complain, I do not cry. At least not in front of most people! But does that make life rewarding enough? Not really. Life should be more than just doing the work you are required to, coming back home, ‘facebook’ing, and then sleeping at 3 in the night. It’s a fast life. I wake up late, hurry, rush to office and try to finish my work in the last minute. One and a half years into the corporate world, maybe I am still not able to get out of my campus life! But now I want to do a lot more. I want to read, I want to watch movies, I want to travel, I want to learn something new. And I want to write, describing all this!

Before finishing, I would like to thank the friend who had asked me to start writing. This is one thing, if not anything else, for which I would want to keep thanking him, because I don’t want to stop this blog. I don’t want to stop writing!