Our course in eye school was about to complete and our stay in Pondicherry was about to end. We were feeling nervous but at the same time we were eager to go home. We had a brief photo session with everybody in the eye school and said goodbye to all. We met our friends Rajashree and Aruna, who were so kind, friendly and helped us throughout our stay. We said goodbye to everybody including Charulata and Prapanna. Next morning we were going to check out and heading towards Chennai. But there was small problem, our train from Chennai was on Saturday morning and we were leaving Pondicherry on Friday afternoon, (we had to check out because our course in eye school was now finished) there were around 20 hours in between to spend and we had no plan ready with us as usual.
We left our guest house next day, it was almost 11 am in the morning, we haven't had breakfast and were hungry. So we started searching for a good restaurant in that hot humid morning with baggage in our hand. We saw one Punjabi (North Indian) restaurant and decided to go inside. Owner was a Sikh man of middle age and with smiling face, he gave us warm welcome and offered the seats. The meal was delicious and we were starving, the result was we were just focused on eating our meal and finishing our task in very short duration . At the time of paying the bill I offered him Rs. 500 note, after looking at that note, the owner was in puzzled expression and then started hesitating to accept. It was now our turn to have puzzled expressions on our faces, this was the second such incidence in Pondicherry. We insisted and explained the Sikh owner how the note is genuine, finally he accepted and we were relieved.
We went to bus stand to catch the bus to Chennai, but when we reached, we found only one bus over there and it was nearly empty. We asked the conductor about the 'final destination', he told us "Mamallapuram"(Mahabalipuram). In single minute we decided to board that bus and to subtract few more hours from the total count of twenty hours.
Mammallapuram or Mahabalipuram was a port city in the 7th century AD, ruled by Pallava dynasty. Mammalla or Mahabali means great wrestler hence Mammallapuram or Mahabalipuram means the town of the great wrestlers. The town must had been famous for its wrestlers at that time. It has been declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The distance from Chennai is 60 Kilometers and 130 Kilometers from Pondicherry.
It took almost three hours to reach Mahabalipuram. When we got down, it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we were thinking to find some cloak room to deposit our baggage and then proceed further but unfortunately there was no such provision and we did not find worth to pay the whole day's tariff for few hours to hotel room. There was no other way but to handle the baggage and to see the places in the town. We went to sea shore to see shore temple, built on the shore facing towards west opposite to Bay of Bengal. This temple was reconstructed after it was destroyed in tsunami in 2004. The temple was built by Pallava king Narasinhavarman in mid 7th Century. Most of the temples like Shore temple, Varah temple, Thirukadalmalai temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu were built in the reign of King Narasinhavarman. There is also sculpture depicting some scenes from the great Indian epic Mahabharata. Every monument and temple was so beautiful that we just lost ourselves in those 2-3 hours. Suddenly we found one huge stone placed on very narrow surface(point), local guide told us that it is the butterball threw away by great lord Krishna in anger, which turned into a huge stone standing on the narrow surface. We also heard that in the British times a local officer tried to move that stone by applying the force of 12 elephants from each side but the stone was standstill. I got myself clicked sitting under that monster stone. We had divided camera roll of 36 photographs equally among ourselves and now my quota was over after this photograph.
We were tired and needed some rest so we went in one cafeteria to have coffee and snacks. I was observing while cook was preparing the coffee with the unique style, generally followed in South India.We enjoyed the aroma of the coffee and then went to bus stand. All the buses were full till 10:30 PM in the night and it was just 7:30 in the evening, three more hours to go. There was not much space to sit on the bus stand. We then decided to sit on the beach with our baggage. The beach was nearly empty, we sat on the sand looking at the sea, as we were so tired we fall asleep immediately, when we woke up, it was 9:30 and to our surprise the sea level was much increased due to tide, it was full moon night. We quickly grabbed our baggage and hurriedly went to bus stand. Bus departed on 10:15 PM and reached Chennai on 12:15 AM, eight more hours to go.
We were sitting on the platform to spend our remaining time. We were trying not to sleep and to keep a close eye on our baggage. But after an hour or two I could not resist and without thinking much I laid myself down the floor. When I woke up in the morning, I found myself laying on the platform and Rushikesh was not there but many thanks to god, our baggage was safe laying besides me. It was 7:15 in the morning and now only 45 minutes to go. Rushikesh came back and told me that our train is on a platform now, we got ready in next 10 minutes, grabbed our baggage and entered the train. When I was looking outside the window, I started recalling all the events right from the day one. I was going to miss our daily sessions at eye school, I was going to miss our beautiful evenings on the sea shore, I was going to miss our swimming at Arikamedu, I was going to miss our ride to Auroville, I was going to miss the divine atmosphere at Matri Mandir, I was going to miss our friends Rajashree and Aruna , in short I was going to miss all these days, full of uncertainty, enthusiasm and freedom. Although it is true that the primary purpose of our visit to cure our defective colour vision did not succeed but for sure we were successful in wandering with passion, we could explore a tiny part of our beautiful country and we experienced the thrill and adventure of traveling on our own. With all this now I was looking forward to my future with joy, confidence and hope.
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| Shore Temple, Mahabalipuram |
We left our guest house next day, it was almost 11 am in the morning, we haven't had breakfast and were hungry. So we started searching for a good restaurant in that hot humid morning with baggage in our hand. We saw one Punjabi (North Indian) restaurant and decided to go inside. Owner was a Sikh man of middle age and with smiling face, he gave us warm welcome and offered the seats. The meal was delicious and we were starving, the result was we were just focused on eating our meal and finishing our task in very short duration . At the time of paying the bill I offered him Rs. 500 note, after looking at that note, the owner was in puzzled expression and then started hesitating to accept. It was now our turn to have puzzled expressions on our faces, this was the second such incidence in Pondicherry. We insisted and explained the Sikh owner how the note is genuine, finally he accepted and we were relieved.
We went to bus stand to catch the bus to Chennai, but when we reached, we found only one bus over there and it was nearly empty. We asked the conductor about the 'final destination', he told us "Mamallapuram"(Mahabalipuram). In single minute we decided to board that bus and to subtract few more hours from the total count of twenty hours.
Mammallapuram or Mahabalipuram was a port city in the 7th century AD, ruled by Pallava dynasty. Mammalla or Mahabali means great wrestler hence Mammallapuram or Mahabalipuram means the town of the great wrestlers. The town must had been famous for its wrestlers at that time. It has been declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The distance from Chennai is 60 Kilometers and 130 Kilometers from Pondicherry.
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| Scenes from Mahabharata |
It took almost three hours to reach Mahabalipuram. When we got down, it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon, we were thinking to find some cloak room to deposit our baggage and then proceed further but unfortunately there was no such provision and we did not find worth to pay the whole day's tariff for few hours to hotel room. There was no other way but to handle the baggage and to see the places in the town. We went to sea shore to see shore temple, built on the shore facing towards west opposite to Bay of Bengal. This temple was reconstructed after it was destroyed in tsunami in 2004. The temple was built by Pallava king Narasinhavarman in mid 7th Century. Most of the temples like Shore temple, Varah temple, Thirukadalmalai temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu were built in the reign of King Narasinhavarman. There is also sculpture depicting some scenes from the great Indian epic Mahabharata. Every monument and temple was so beautiful that we just lost ourselves in those 2-3 hours. Suddenly we found one huge stone placed on very narrow surface(point), local guide told us that it is the butterball threw away by great lord Krishna in anger, which turned into a huge stone standing on the narrow surface. We also heard that in the British times a local officer tried to move that stone by applying the force of 12 elephants from each side but the stone was standstill. I got myself clicked sitting under that monster stone. We had divided camera roll of 36 photographs equally among ourselves and now my quota was over after this photograph.
 |
| Huge stone on a very narrow surface |
We were sitting on the platform to spend our remaining time. We were trying not to sleep and to keep a close eye on our baggage. But after an hour or two I could not resist and without thinking much I laid myself down the floor. When I woke up in the morning, I found myself laying on the platform and Rushikesh was not there but many thanks to god, our baggage was safe laying besides me. It was 7:15 in the morning and now only 45 minutes to go. Rushikesh came back and told me that our train is on a platform now, we got ready in next 10 minutes, grabbed our baggage and entered the train. When I was looking outside the window, I started recalling all the events right from the day one. I was going to miss our daily sessions at eye school, I was going to miss our beautiful evenings on the sea shore, I was going to miss our swimming at Arikamedu, I was going to miss our ride to Auroville, I was going to miss the divine atmosphere at Matri Mandir, I was going to miss our friends Rajashree and Aruna , in short I was going to miss all these days, full of uncertainty, enthusiasm and freedom. Although it is true that the primary purpose of our visit to cure our defective colour vision did not succeed but for sure we were successful in wandering with passion, we could explore a tiny part of our beautiful country and we experienced the thrill and adventure of traveling on our own. With all this now I was looking forward to my future with joy, confidence and hope.
Thank you for the info. It sounds pretty user friendly. I guess I’ll pick one up for fun. thank u
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