Exploring Pondicherry, Part II

School for Perfect Eyesight (SPE) is one of the many institutions founded by Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Sri Aurobindo Ashram is having a divine place among people of Pondicherry. Majority of the population is Tamil but there is a considerable presence of French and other European population.Tamil and French have been declared as a official languages of Government of Pondicherry.

   It was almost 9 o’clock when we reached our destination; we were tired, hungry and were traveling for last 23 hours. But now the most important task was to find shelter in the unknown city. We inquired in the couple of hotels but the fare was out of our budget, so finally we hired one auto and told him to take us to a hotel with reasonable fare. After visiting few places finally we selected one hotel on the busy street in some old building. It was very late in the night and we were exhausted. Our room was small and not that comfortable hence we decided that we are going to leave this room as soon as possible. We took our dinner and then fell asleep.

   We woke up late in the morning and after having our breakfast we went outside in the city for wandering. The city of Pondicherry was really a pleasant surprise for us. We felt like as if we are in any Latin American city. Streets were neat, clean with wide footpaths, visible bold nameplates and full of Indian as well as Caucasian crowd. Our first priority was to meet Mr. Prapanna who was in charge of SPE and to request him to admit us for the course and to arrange accommodation in ashram’s guest house. SPE building was near to beach and by the time we reached SPE, it was closed after its morning session. Mr. Prapanna was in his cabin, we met him and requested for the accommodation, he thought for a while and gave us a note and a room number of a guest house named ‘Atithi’. He had booked a room in Atithi guest house on his name and he gave it to us. Ashram is having numerous guest houses and ‘Atithi Guest House’ was one among them with rent of Rs. 65/- per day. In addition Prapanna told us that you will get a meal pass in Rs. 20/- in which you can have breakfast, lunch and dinner. So food and accommodation was pretty cheap. Then finally we moved to the Atithi guest house. Our room in the guest house was very clean and spacious with wooden writing table. The overall atmosphere was charming except that there was too much humidity and heat and we realized that now it is time to replace our jeans with either short or ‘Lungi’, a cotton garment which is tied around waist and is traditional garment of South India, you will find men with 'Lungi' everywhere on the streets, we tried and found it very comfortable. Then we wandered aimlessly in the city. Spending our rest of the day by taking sea bath, visiting the ashram and other buildings of ashram such as it's library,school and sport's complex and then finally returning to the guest house after having delicious dinner in the South Indian restaurant.

Pondicherry, from the terrace of Eye school

Our course in the SPE was started next morning; initially SPE authorities had enrolled us in the SPE, then explained us about the rules and regulations and warned us not to miss a single day, a single session (there were two sessions in a day morning and afternoon) during the course and finally took us inside one cabin to check our eyesight. When our checkup was over the doctor told us that your eyesight is perfect.  We replied “yes we don’t have to wear glasses”. Then doctor asked with much surprise that “Then why you are here”? Then we described our problem and told the doctor that we are here to undergo a treatment to cure this. Then he smiled and asked us in a sarcastic manner “who told you that this problem is curable? No one on this earth can cure your problem, because this is an organic problem and you have to live rest of your life with this problem”. We were frozen with these harsh words and could not react, we sat there for few seconds and then finally stood up to go. When we were outside in the main hall one young lady with bright eyes and sharp nose told us to start the exercise one by one. “It will be of no use for us”, we replied her sadly. She looked at us and told us to come with her; we followed her to the upstairs and sat in a room in the extreme corner. We narrated her whole story right from the beginning and finally said that our dreams of flying high are now devastated. She looked at us kindly and told us not to lose heart and to be strong, there must be some other things waiting for you, which would be exciting and challenging too. Then she suggested us to continue the course in spite of our good eyesight and to enjoy our stay in Pondicherry.  Her name was ‘Rajashree’ and was living in ashram with her younger sister for last thirteen years. Her parents divorced when she was in her teens and then she dedicated her life to the ashram. There were people from different parts of the world and from different background who were living a simple and enlighten life in the ashram. We were impressed by the dedication of these people and started thinking that how much we complain in our daily life about everything.  

   After completing our morning session Rajshree suggested us that you can get a bicycle on rent and you can visit nearby places such as Auroville, an excavation site dating back to Roman period, botanical garden etc. We had five days in our hand to and wanted to visit much more places.


(in continuation)