Puducherry :o)

Hmmm..so finally moved my lazy bum and went on with unkown people to an unkown destination....hehehe.. Must confess I was kind of in two minds most of the time till i finally sat in the cab for Pondicherry.....but anyway I guess it was good :o)
SO here I was..standing in front of a mall waiting for people I dodnt know at all about...all I knew were their fone numbers.....and thinking OMFG how screwed can things get from here and why dont I take the auto back home....after all I dont owe anything to anyone and it isnt a compulsion.. but somehow stayed on...
Then came my first co-traveller...and then the second..and then cam ethe cab with 2 more... And that is all I would write abt them as they deserve a separate post all together :o))
So here I was in the back seat all cramped up but had an awesome view of the sky from the rear of the cab...and didnt realize when I felt asleep till the car hit a bump..and I soon realized that sleeping will be a luxury on the last seat of an Innova....still tried and stretched after after 2-3 hrs till I woke up at 5 in the morning to realize that we were almost there....
It was beautiful....the sun rising ever so slowly and palm trees on the roadside and that slight chill in the air that makes you want to go out and take a walk in.... NICE :D
And then we went on a wild goose chase trying to find Auroville...and every one told a different direction..only in the end did we realize that there are multiple ways of going to Auroville :o))
And then when we finally entered Auroville..it was an awesome experience for me....haven't seen anything so serene and beautiful in so many years..maybe because of so many trees around and that it was raining...wow...totally awesome ... and no cars/vehicle...no people also at stretches... just a solitary person walking in deep thought..... I must admit the rain made it all th emore beautiful......
So after going around in circles for almost an hour and a half we finally found the Youth Camp we were to bunk in..and it was even more beautiful (albeit sans any facilities) but all I could see was the sun peeping from the bamboo shoots that had formed an umbrella all over the place... totally awesome :D :D
Yes..everyone else was cribbing but I loved the sun peeping from the shoots.....haven't seen anything like this ever....and all that was around was like a forest....and no humans or animals..... It was literally in the middle of nowhere :D
Then we went about seeing Auroville and I missed a cycle there..I wanted to get lost in the whole forest known as Auroville..in the trees that bend over to embrace you and the red roads that cling on to your shoes....and the sun peeping at you from where it could get an opening .... It was like a different world altogether...... And maybe I didn't want to come out of it :D Just get LOST..never to be FOUND :D
Anyway ...went around and saw the Visitor's center ..

And there was this huge poster of someone meditating in the Matri Mandir (the huge golden globe at the epicenter of Auroville) and it just said "The most important thing to know is yourself" and it just hit me...and then I just kept sinking into the whole idea of Auroville.....

All that is required of a human being is to work..and money and position have no meaning there...everyone just works to the best of their ability and only limit being one's own capability... And suddenly Ayn rand seemed so cosmetic....don't know how..but it did..right there...right then.. you don't own anything..you make your own house..the land belongs to Auroville... and when you die..the house goes back to Auroville.... All solar electricity ... all water harvested on their own...it was a lovely idea that has since not left my mind and somewhere I guess I would always want to go back and contribute some years of work there and see where it takes me from there...
And where ever I saw..I could see people not being held back from anything just that they chose to be quiet and smile at you as if looking at kids who need to grow up to understand things in life which are hidden to them now :o) It was beautiful.....and it kept raining....

Then we moved out after lunch and after catching a nap we went to Puducherry Beach :o) Nothing much to say about the beach after dark but the best part came when we started to look for good pubs around ...and everyone had their list...
It was then that I realized that Puducherry existed in the small by lanes and still was so beautiful...each of the restaurants and pubs would just appear out of nowhere on the roof of some building and had a welcoming ambiance about it all.....
I wanted to sit at each one of them......maybe have nothing but just soak it all....it was beautiful....
Aaahhhh...and Le Cafe...how can I forget that...a cafe in French style...the lone building (if you can call a 2 room single storey house that) on the beach and it served coffee...wow... Just too good.... :D
I was wondering if the next time I would stay at the Promenade or at Auroville.... Maybe both :o)
Then again the next morning we went to Puducherry and found out that you could walk across the bloody city on foot.....wow....just take one street and it goes across the city and it isnt a long walk......and all the places were in the bylanes..... an awesome netwrok of straight parallel roads criss-crossing eah other.... and people driving in from all directions without any traffic signals and going on in a sort of ordered chaos...... :D :D

Minus the humidity and the heat on the day..I just loved the whole experience and would definitely like to go ...maybe all alone this time.....and just get lost at Auroville and then walk through all the by-lanes in the French Quarter and just soak it in.... :D

Maybe AGAIN!!

PS - When you look at the whole plan of Auroville then you understand the method to the madness....It is like the Matri Mandir at the epicenter and the whole place coming out from the it like a tornado swirling from the center or as I saw it..like the EYE :o) Eye to see things clearly... to comprehend the whole new world that awaits us.... to look outside with the focus being on the self....