A Trip to Pondicherry

Even when I wanted to stay at home and play with my neighbor, my mother and sister managed to drag to the railway station with another neighbor’s family for a vacation in Pondicherry/Puducherry (whatever you want to call it). There were four children in total: my sister, two of my neighbors and me. There were three adults: my neighbor’s parents and my mother, and they were going to be joined by my father soon. All the children were younger than me, and this meant another boring vacation. The train left the station at about 6:00 in the evening and reached at 8:00 the next day morning. We played UNO in the train and our dinner was some food which we brought along from home. The next day, our father came to the Chennai railway station to pick us up. From there, we hired an Innova van to drive us to Pondicherry/Puducherry (whatever you want to...). The drive was very long, and seemed longer when I was squished into the back of the car with my sister. We had stopped at a hotel for (a really good) breakfast before driving for some more time to reach the hotel in which we were staying. The view was breathtaking.

The entrance to the hotel was like a walk through a forest. It was actually a guest house and not a hotel. There were three bungalows in the compound. One belonged to the owner, and the other two were guest houses. We were staying in the one furthest from the entrance. All of these houses were surrounded by small and thin canals in which there were hundreds of fishes. There was also a pond behind every house and there was a water snake in the pond behind the owner’s house. The owner must really like animals, because he kept four dogs and a cat as pets. I like animals too, and I changed my mind about not wanting to come only because of them. As soon as we put our luggage in our rooms and went to the lobby of the house (hotel), the other children asked the manager if they could see the dog. The manager got the well-trained dog to our house. It was a South-Indian hunting breed called the Rajapalayam and looked a lot like a greyhound. The dog was huge but I wasn’t afraid of it. My father and I were the only ones who pet the dog, even though it was my sister and the other children who asked for the dog to be brought to our bungalow.

We had lunch and spent two hours figuring out how to charge my DS (it needs 110 volts) and playing bluff with UNO cards. At 4:00 in the evening, we went to the Pondicherry/Puducherry (whatever you want...)beach; actually, it was not a beach, because it was covered with rocks and they did not allow us to reach the water. It didn't have any sand at all! So I played some catch, had an ice-cream and went with my father to a visitor center to find out more about Pondicherry/Puducherry (whatever...). Then we went to the Auro beach, only to swim. The beach was stinking a lot because the local fishermen dried fish on the sand right on the beach. I made a mental note to have a proper bath after going to the guest house, and then enjoyed the beach. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to go very deep into the water, even when I knew how to swim very well.

Coco on my lap

As soon as we went back to the guest-house, we saw the cat. It was brown, black and white and it's name was Coco. I really liked the cat and it always climbed onto my lap. I tried to take pictures, but the cat was scared of the flash and shut it's eyes. I had a bath and ate my (delicious) food. In our room, the bed was big enough for only three people to sleep on and there was a separate mattress for one person on the floor. I slept on the mattress on the floor because I was used to doing this in my room at home too.

The next day we went to the Auroville visitor center. There, we saw a movie about the Matrimandir. There was a lot of information about the place in French, so I couldn't read it. Then we went outside the visitor center, where there were many stalls selling food items which were prepared from vegetables grown in Auroville. Then we walked one kilometer to see the Matrimandir viewing point. When we walked back, everybody was tired, and we went to one of the stalls to buy lemon juice. It was very good, and I had three glasses of it. When we were going to the car, we saw a welcome sign that said welcome in 13 different languages. We were able to identify 12 of the languages. We had lunch in a restaurant, and then went to Aurobindo Ashram. We reached some time before the Ashram opened, and we had to wait. While waiting, we saw a monkey that almost ran into me. Someone even tried to offer the monkey a banana. After a while the Ashram opened and we went inside. We weren't allowed to make any noise. There were many pictures of Swami Aurobindo and the divine Mother who had started the Ashram.

From there we went to another beach called the Paradise Beach. The beach was on an island and we had to go there in a boat; it was a fifteen minute ride. We saw fish jumping out of the water on our ride. The beach was the best beach that we visited in our trip. Unfortunately, there was a beach-guard who wouldn't let us wade very deep into the water. We had a lot of fun and lost track of time. After a long time, we went back to our guest house and played bluff with UNO cards again. We went to sleep after a long time.

It was the last day, and we were planned to visit the Mahabalipuram monuments built by the Pallava king 1600 years ago. There were five monuments. First we went to the main monument. It was a bit interesting, as it had hollow pillars that made music, an old lighthouse built by the Pallavas and a new lighthouse built by the British people. We also visited the other four monuments which are the Five Rathas, Arjuna's Penance (which has more than150 images carved onto a single rock), Krishna's Butterball (which was a rock that balanced at the edge of a steep drop but never falls) and Shore temples. After that we went to a restaurant that delivered food so slow that we lost our appetite. On our way to the railway station, we stopped at the very famous Sri Krishna Sweets shop to buy some snacks for our train journey. The train left in the evening and we reached home the next day. The train journey was a bit boring, but I was happy to reach home.


Note: I have decided to call Pondicherry/Puducherry (...) Pondicherry from today.