A visit to the French Colony of India

Shuru ho ja mamu

Last Friday Aditya had come from Bangalore to visit. The idea of Pondicherry struck my mind all of a sudden. I wanted to visit that place since the day I landed in Chennai along with some other similar beautiful and historic ones. So, the next day Saturday morning we were seen standing on the Bus-stop at Thiruvanmiyur (that’s a place in Chennai). Locating the stop for Pondicherry was a little challenging considering, there were bunches of people waiting for the buses every few feet apart, and that looked like many stops lined together. Obviously we were confused where exactly the bus will stop. Nevertheless, soon a bus approached and to our surprise, it was overcrowded. We had thought the buses going to Pondy would be luxurious and we would easily get a place to place our bums on. Adventurous as we are, we thought to get in the bus anyway. It was a different matter that we could no longer bear the crowd inside and had to get down at Kalpakkam (IGCAR is located there) for changing the bus. It was again a different matter when the next bus we got into was crowded as well (although the packing fraction was less) and finally we had to go standing. The only savior was the road from Chennai to Pondicherry that is the East-Coast Road (ECR) which runs parallel to the coast of Bay-of-Bengal. The scenes were awesome along the way.

*khatey jao khatey jao*

Padharo

After around 3 hours of travel put altogether, we had reached the town of Puducherry. The town had a typical feel of a coastal one. I remembered the towns of Goa which looked more or less similar except the language spoken. According to the plan, we thought of visiting these places in order: Auroville, Aurobindo Ashram, Backwaters and a few beaches if time permitted. But before that we had to stuff ourselves like pigs. The food by the way is great and worth the money in Puducherry. Having done that, it was time to see the French town of India.

Auroville

The road to Aurovile crossed the Puducherry Township and various colonies consisting of huts, which you could term as villages. To set the context about Auroville:

"Auroville - or the ‘City of Dawn’ - was conceived as a place of research into the ideal of human unity by the Mother, the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo. The idea is to build a futuristic city where people of goodwill can live together in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. Auroville came into existence in 1968. Its Charter says, “To live in Auroville one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness”, and describes it as “belonging to nobody in particular, but to humanity as a whole”; as a place “of constant progress”; and as “a bridge between the past and the future”.

The description of the place itself is as mystic and holy as its aura. The striking thing of Auroville is that out of the 2000 odd population around two-thirds are non-Indians. The settlements are known by names like Grace, Certitude, Fraternity, Fertile and Transformation. Some inputs for GRE aspirants there!
At the centre of the township is ‘Matrimandir’.

“The central Matrimandir, which is not a temple but a place for individual silent concentration, is set in an area of 62 acres at the centre of the emerging township, and is seen as “a symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s aspiration for perfection. Union with the divine manifesting in a progressive human unity. During the inauguration ceremony of Auroville on 28th February 1968, soil from 124 countries was placed in a lotus-shaped urn and mixed to symbolize universal oneness. This urn is today sited at the centre of an Amphitheatre in the Matrimandir Gardens. The Matrimandir’s 12-sided white marble Inner Chamber has a 70 cms diameter optical-quality glass globe at its centre, onto which a shaft of sunlight is focused by way of a roof-mounted heliostat. The light falling on the globe acts as a focal aid to concentration”

An important point to be noted here is, if you would like to see Matrimandir from inside you will have to take permission a couple of days in advance. We, obviously not aware of the fact were depreived of the experience.

An interesting experience that I would like to narrate goes something like this.
While I and Aditya were taking a stroll in the lawns of Auroville I saw a cute kid walking along with his parents. The family was from some European country the name of which I forgot unfortunately. Anyway, the important thing here is that kid was really charming and his cute innocence totally captured my attention. I felt like taking that kid in my ‘godi’ but as he was with his parents I did not get a chance to do so. After some time the kid stopped looking for something while his parents continued moving away from him. The kid was alone and I was right behind the kid. Obviously, I took him and raised him up, holding his arms. Now all of a sudden that cute smile vanished and the kid turned all red. As if that was not sufficient he started shrieking violently. I was totally confused and didn’t know what to do next. I tried putting him back on the grounds. But he refused to stand on his feet and landed on his knees. His shorts came out in the process. In short there was total mess. Now the guy who seemed to be his father noticed and started coming towards us. He looked a total body builder and I guessed I was in some serious trouble there. Fortunately he was polite and mentioned something regarding the kid being skeptical to strangers while I mentally calculated my chances of landing in the hospital.
Well, a tragedy was averted there and I promised myself never to fall for cute kids and mess with them.

Aurobindo Ashram

“The Sri Aurobindo Ashram located on rue de la Marine, is one of the most well known and wealthiest ashrams in India, with devotees from India and all over the world flocking to it for spiritual salvation. Its spiritual tenets represent a synthesis of yoga and modern science. It is open to the public daily between 08-1200 hrs and 1400-1800 hrs. Children below 3 years of age are not allowed into the ashram and photography is allowed only with permission of the ashram authorities.

The Ashram was set up in 1926 by Sri Aurobindo Ghose, one of India’s greatest philosopher-poets, who originally came to Pondy to escape persecution by the British. It was after arriving in puducherry, that he was drawn into the spiritual realm and discovered the power of yoga. His philosophy deeply rooted in yoga and his writings inspired a number of followers.

One of them was a Parisian mystic, painter and musician called Mirra Alfassa, who was so inspired by his philosophy that she stayed on in puducherry and was instrumental in establishment of the ashram. After Aurobindo’s death in 1950, the running of the Ashram was entrusted to his chief disciple and companion, Mirra Alfassa, (also known as ‘The Mother’). The idea of Auroville or the “City of Down” was conceived by ‘The Mother’. She died in 1973 at the age of 93.”

Other than these two most famous places we managed to land at some beaches. Promenade was one of them.

Promenade

*The Mahatma with his disciple*

“The 1.5 km long promenade running along the beach is the pride of Puducherry. There one can relax or take a stroll at any time of the day. On the sea front are several land marks. The War memorial cold and dispassionate throbbing the memory of last dreams, the statue of Joan of Arc blazing an inspiration, the heritage town hall, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi standing tall, Dupleix statue, old light house, the remains of the old pier, the old customs house, speak the splendor of the by-gone era. The well furnished tourist information centre is situated in esthetically heritage building facing the sea to cater to the need of visiting tourists.”

*Beauty of soul expressed via colours*

The best thing I liked about Promenade was that all the administrative offices were located along the beach. I wondered how it would feel to be the Governor of the Territory and staying in the Governor House someday.
The journey to Pondicherry ended after seeing all these places and fortunately we got a State Transport bus back to Chennai, and yes we finally got to park ourselves on those cushioned seats which we craved for while coming.

The coast looked more serene and beautiful in that orange-grey aura of the evening and I gazed out through the windows and wished the ride would never end.

PS: The italicized information has been taken from the official website of Pondicherry-Tourism.