Its almost 11 years have passed after my Pondichery visit. Those were the days of my teen age full of confusion, full of enthusiasm and obviously with no money to spend. I was disparately wanted to do something adventurous but failed due to my studies and other restrictions imposed by my parents.
I had a dream of joining Indian AirForce(IAF) and Ishihara color test told me that I am having a certain kind of defective colour vision which will ultimately deny my entry as a fighter pilot. I became nervous, unhappy and little bit angry and when you feel like that, especially when you are in your teens, you assume the whole world is against you and you should struggle by all means. Fortunately I got a companion in my struggle, my school friend Rushikesh, who was also wanted to join IAF and was diagnosed with the same problem. Together we started to find out what can be done with this problem or how this can be cured.
By the time our summer vacations were started and one fine morning Rushikesh rang me, told to start packing up the baggage and to be ready for a long journey. I asked him what’s the matter, but he just told me that we are going to Pondicherry so that we can get a treatment from the world famous Shree Aurobindo ashram’s 'School for Perfect Eyesight'(SPE) , which was recommended by his friend. It took almost month to start our journey by taking an appointment of clinic, booking our railway tickets and yes after convincing our parents. Rushikesh had told me that our ashram’s guest house accommodation has been confirmed and there is no need to worry.
After listening to our parent’s never ending instructions finally we left Pune for Chennai (Madras). I was going on my own to visit a city which was almost a 1100 kilometers away from my home, off course for the first time. I was feeling like on top of the world and free from all the restrictions, burdens and tensions. And in a second Rushikesh brought me down to earth by telling that our booking for the guest house was not confirmed and the concerned person in the SPE had advised him to postpone our trip. “So what is our plan B”? I asked Rushikesh. “There is no plan B” he replied. “Now what we are going to do”? I again asked. “I Don’t know” was the answer. “Then why didn’t you tell me before”. “Because I feared you would have cancelled our trip”, Rushikesh muttered. So after reaching Pondicherry there was task waiting for us on priority, to search for an accommodation.
Our train journey was fantastic; we were traveling by sleeper class so there was considerable crowd with various regional flavors around us. Everybody was busy in chatting in their own groups and in their charming voices. You can easily spend your time by watching their activities. This particular scene you cannot enjoy in the first class where everybody shuts himself in his cell and you never notice whether you are traveling alone or are there any co-travelers with you. While traveling to Chennai, train passes through four major states of India and you can easily figure out by spotting the change in the writing script that you have entered in a new state. Each state has its own type of terrain, colour of a soil and as soon as you travel southwards, greenery begins to appear all around the area. I had been to extreme south of India before, but then I was very little to understand, observe and enjoy this fun of train journey. Chennai was just 3 hours away, and then we began to think how we should go to Pondicherry. One co-passenger told us that after getting down at Chennai station catch a city bus to Chennai bus stand and from there you will get a bus to Pondicherry. So tentatively we had our next plan ready after reaching Chennai. Roads full of crowd, city buses with blowing strange horns and having posters depicting the scenes from Tamil movies everywhere, were the signs telling us that we are in Chennai.
At around 5:20 PM train stopped at Chennai Station. After coming out of the station we were searching for a bus to reach Chennai bus stand and we realized that language is going to be our major concern throughout our stay. The only language the people could understand was Tamil and very few could speak in English but in their own accent which was highly impossible to grab quickly. Bus name plates were written in the Tamil script and we were standing helplessly with sign of frustration on our faces among the crowd. Finally we asked one person with just ‘Pondicherry’? He was too in confusion for a second and then smile appeared on his face, he replied “Oh you mean Pondee”, and then guided us to the right bus which dropped us at Chennai bus stand. At the bus stand again by making the gestures and just repeating the word Pondee finally we were in the bus to Pondicherry. These events reminded me about my visit to French city Paris couple of years back, where people could not understand English (or they were pretending) and the only language they were comfortable with was ‘French’. My knowledge of French was not more than few words and I had to ask, talk or convey my message to the people by making the gestures or just repeating the single word, some times it helps you but sometimes it makes you joker.
During our bus journey I started reminding information about Pondichery which I had read in last one month.
Pondicherry is a union territory of India and is situated on south eastern coast called as Coromandel coast, it is surrounded by Indian state of Tamilnadu and is around 160 Kilometers away from the famous city Chennai. In Tamilnadu it is usually called as Puducherry.It was ruled by France for almost 200 years. Pondicherry is mainly famous for Sri Aurobindo Ashram founded by Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, famous Indian Freedom fighter turned spiritual Guru. Ashram has provided various charitable services to the nearby region and has been promoting Yoga which ultimately helps people to live a quality life.
(in continuation.)
Notes and Terminology
Shree Aurobindo ashram:- A spiritual institute located at Pondicherry after famous Indian freedom fighter turned spiritual Guru Shree Aurobindo Gosh.
Dadar-Chennai express train passes through four Indian states viz. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu covering almost 1300 Kilometers. Tamil is the official language of state of Tamilnadu.
I had a dream of joining Indian AirForce(IAF) and Ishihara color test told me that I am having a certain kind of defective colour vision which will ultimately deny my entry as a fighter pilot. I became nervous, unhappy and little bit angry and when you feel like that, especially when you are in your teens, you assume the whole world is against you and you should struggle by all means. Fortunately I got a companion in my struggle, my school friend Rushikesh, who was also wanted to join IAF and was diagnosed with the same problem. Together we started to find out what can be done with this problem or how this can be cured.
By the time our summer vacations were started and one fine morning Rushikesh rang me, told to start packing up the baggage and to be ready for a long journey. I asked him what’s the matter, but he just told me that we are going to Pondicherry so that we can get a treatment from the world famous Shree Aurobindo ashram’s 'School for Perfect Eyesight'(SPE) , which was recommended by his friend. It took almost month to start our journey by taking an appointment of clinic, booking our railway tickets and yes after convincing our parents. Rushikesh had told me that our ashram’s guest house accommodation has been confirmed and there is no need to worry.
After listening to our parent’s never ending instructions finally we left Pune for Chennai (Madras). I was going on my own to visit a city which was almost a 1100 kilometers away from my home, off course for the first time. I was feeling like on top of the world and free from all the restrictions, burdens and tensions. And in a second Rushikesh brought me down to earth by telling that our booking for the guest house was not confirmed and the concerned person in the SPE had advised him to postpone our trip. “So what is our plan B”? I asked Rushikesh. “There is no plan B” he replied. “Now what we are going to do”? I again asked. “I Don’t know” was the answer. “Then why didn’t you tell me before”. “Because I feared you would have cancelled our trip”, Rushikesh muttered. So after reaching Pondicherry there was task waiting for us on priority, to search for an accommodation.
Our train journey was fantastic; we were traveling by sleeper class so there was considerable crowd with various regional flavors around us. Everybody was busy in chatting in their own groups and in their charming voices. You can easily spend your time by watching their activities. This particular scene you cannot enjoy in the first class where everybody shuts himself in his cell and you never notice whether you are traveling alone or are there any co-travelers with you. While traveling to Chennai, train passes through four major states of India and you can easily figure out by spotting the change in the writing script that you have entered in a new state. Each state has its own type of terrain, colour of a soil and as soon as you travel southwards, greenery begins to appear all around the area. I had been to extreme south of India before, but then I was very little to understand, observe and enjoy this fun of train journey. Chennai was just 3 hours away, and then we began to think how we should go to Pondicherry. One co-passenger told us that after getting down at Chennai station catch a city bus to Chennai bus stand and from there you will get a bus to Pondicherry. So tentatively we had our next plan ready after reaching Chennai. Roads full of crowd, city buses with blowing strange horns and having posters depicting the scenes from Tamil movies everywhere, were the signs telling us that we are in Chennai.
 |
| Typical South Indian house |
At around 5:20 PM train stopped at Chennai Station. After coming out of the station we were searching for a bus to reach Chennai bus stand and we realized that language is going to be our major concern throughout our stay. The only language the people could understand was Tamil and very few could speak in English but in their own accent which was highly impossible to grab quickly. Bus name plates were written in the Tamil script and we were standing helplessly with sign of frustration on our faces among the crowd. Finally we asked one person with just ‘Pondicherry’? He was too in confusion for a second and then smile appeared on his face, he replied “Oh you mean Pondee”, and then guided us to the right bus which dropped us at Chennai bus stand. At the bus stand again by making the gestures and just repeating the word Pondee finally we were in the bus to Pondicherry. These events reminded me about my visit to French city Paris couple of years back, where people could not understand English (or they were pretending) and the only language they were comfortable with was ‘French’. My knowledge of French was not more than few words and I had to ask, talk or convey my message to the people by making the gestures or just repeating the single word, some times it helps you but sometimes it makes you joker.
During our bus journey I started reminding information about Pondichery which I had read in last one month.
Pondicherry is a union territory of India and is situated on south eastern coast called as Coromandel coast, it is surrounded by Indian state of Tamilnadu and is around 160 Kilometers away from the famous city Chennai. In Tamilnadu it is usually called as Puducherry.It was ruled by France for almost 200 years. Pondicherry is mainly famous for Sri Aurobindo Ashram founded by Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, famous Indian Freedom fighter turned spiritual Guru. Ashram has provided various charitable services to the nearby region and has been promoting Yoga which ultimately helps people to live a quality life.
(in continuation.)
Notes and Terminology
Ishihara color test :- The Ishihara color test is a test to identify the red-green colour deficiencies.
Dadar-Chennai express train passes through four Indian states viz. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu covering almost 1300 Kilometers. Tamil is the official language of state of Tamilnadu.
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