Every time corporate broke me to smithereens, I yearned for an underlying self-exploration in travel. With money and time constraints tugging my liberal mind back to the gospel by-lanes of Chennai, office, and survival, I went ahead and let myself savour sultry Pondicherry, time and again. 1 year and 4 trips later, I am just looking for words to justify the best circumstantial tranquillity of mind and body that this coastal cluster has given me EVERY DAMN TIME!
I and my friends have always been a flock of scheduled fresh-blooded youths with little investment but a tremendous appetite for observant exploration. I believe, for Pondicherry, it is a matter of perspectives. Is it spiritual or is it just letting your hair down in a cosmopolitan club alongside the Promenade, the scrumptious food or the architecture, it is still incomprehensible. I have spent the mornings in a garland market by Vinayagar Temple or met old friends along university’s most obscure corner for a quick quasi-legal act, or that day in Auroville, mesmerized by how the ideal society should formulate into.
It is just undulating and dynamic as to how quintessential and regional Tamil culture and uber-modernization can reside in harmony!
As I plan on making yet another treacherous trip back to my security blanket of distorted serenity, let me tell you about some of the places and experiences other than the stereotype Paradise Beach, Promenade, the churches and the things you see on Pondicherry postcards, not that they are in any way being sabotaged as landmarks.
Pichavaram
A village if not anything else is 2-hour drive from Pondicherry. But the biggest jolt here is that Pichavaram’s Killai backwater houses the second largest mangrove forest in the world after Sundarbans. 5 girls, one boat and a plentiful of opportunities under the scorching sun experienced the best 3 hours of our lives. Sailing in-and-out of darkness and surrealism, we gasped in astonishment at how beautiful life is.
Auroville/Matrimandir
Leave it to your instincts when in Auroville. But booking a mediation time (free of cost) in the Inner Chamber of Matrimandir will make you question materialistic reasonability. At least it did for me.
Oh, the food!
It is a global market of up-class French entrees to the instinctive street-styled dosa. Please sort a day just to food, a cuppa, a cocktail or just plain old filter coffee.
Lord, the barrel of flavours everywhere!
Scooty rides
Cycle, scooty, motorbike and more – wind in the hair and that innate liberty on the crescent. Turn on your Google map and just go where the road takes you.
Well, no travelogue can be constricted to a definite line of a to-do list. My time in Pondicherry has been a course of differential analogies that have imbibed a lifetime of experiences. The solace, the sea, the ever-compassionate beach dogs, the union territory affordability on booze, the food, the architecture, and the timeless global respite. Pondicherry is my blissful reminiscent of the things I want to be. And trust me, for you it will be the same story of belongingness just told differently.
