ExprezziO

 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. 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 restaura...

On the next day we did not go anywhere outside the Pondicherry. We visited few noted places like ‘Vinayagar Temple’ of Lord Ganesha, ‘Immaculate Cathedral’ and Romain Rolland Library. Romain Rolland library located on Romain Rolland street (previously known as Bibliotheque Publique)  is one of the oldest library in India named after notable French scholar ‘Romain Rolland’. This library contains over 300,000 volumes in different languages.  We visited a sweet mart run by Ashrama in the city and enjoyed eating Bengali sweets, sometimes trying the fast food on the Chinese corner and also special Tamil meal on the banana leaf in traditional Tamil restaurant. Serving food on the banana leaf reminded me of my own Maharashtrian culture and felt like at home. Our next plan was to visit Pichavaram, largest mangrove forest in India, on the backwaters of Vellar and Colerron rivers and about eighty kilometers from Pondicherry. We enquired at the Bus stand about the bus availability and th...

We were sitting on the beautiful beach of Pondicherry at night, I was thinking about my future and it was difficult for me to even think that I will have to choose something other than my dream of flying high for my bread and butter. I had come to Pondicherry in search of solution and what I came to know was my problem doesn’t have any solution. I did not talk to Rushikesh for a long time. Then finally he got up and went to Cyber café. I was alone in my thoughts and suddenly somebody patted on my shoulder, I looked back, it was Rajashree standing with one other lady. “So you are still lost in the sadness, we were going for a dinner and I saw you from the street”, Said Rajashree. She introduced other lady with me. Her name was Aruna, of medium height, fair and smart. “So do you like Pondicherry?”  asked Aruna. “Yes, off course and today we have hired bicycles to see the Pondicherry and nearby places.” I answered. “Good so where are you going tomorrow?” Aruna asked me with curiosity,...

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 po...

  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 an...