Pondicherry

We, our team (Shanker,Satheesh,Karthick,Mohan Raj & myself) visited mostly temples. For a change we planned to go some place where we can have some fun as well. The moment we thought about fun the first place came on all our mind was Pondicherry. Yes, it is the Union territory in India which is greatly influenced by French and still exists to this date. The interesting fact, French is also one of the official language in Pondicherry.

Starting to Pondicherry: One fine morning @ 6:30, 05th March we started our journey from Koyambedu bus terminus, Chennai. There are plenty of state buses running to Pondicherry from Chennai. I would say even for every 5 mins you can get a bus. We actually took a volvo bus because these buses usually takes less time than the normal city buses. Due to heavy traffic we got delayed by 30mins and reached there by 9:50. The distance is about 160kms from Chennai.

Had our breakfast at a hotel which is close to bus terminus. Then we took an auto and first went to Manakula vinayagar temple.

 

Manakula vinayagar temple

 

Temple elephant -

 Lakshmi, the elephant she wears kollusu. Just have a closer look at her legs.

We had good dharsan in the temple and then we walked towards Annai(Mother), Aurobindo ashram which is close to this temple. The roads were neat, clean and also shady.

Aurobindo ashram road

Aurobindo ashram

Could not take up any photos inside as photography is strictly prohibited. We could feel the silence the moment we entered. Actually this ashram was the abode of annai and Aurobindo. The inner courtyard is the samadhi of both. We spent for a while and then started to auroville.

Auroville a universal township which is about 10kms away from ashram. The main idea behind this auroville is to realise human unity in diversity. Here people from different nationals are living together.

on the way to auroville.

Both side of the road are covered with trees, it is really cool as it is very much shady. We reached the place and got inside auroville campus.

Getting inside auroville

 There is an information center in the right hand side near the entrance. We were asked to go to auditorium where they were showing a video about auroville, what is auroville, why auroville and how it was formed and finally about Matrimandhir.

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auditorium

Once the video was over we came out and bought the entrance tickets to go Matirmandhir which is about 2kms away from this place. We have to go by walk but it is really shady. It makes easier to walk even during the noon.

Bamboo trees

walking towards matrimandhir

walking,walking,.....

Nearing matrimandir with lots of excitement

Beautiful tree that attracted my eyes, clicked..

Matrimandhir

This is so called Matrimandhir a huge sphere surrounded by 12 pedestals. The central dome is covered by gold discs. Inside this dome there is a meditation hall. Need to get prior appointment to go inside this Matrimandhir. Otherwise we can see the outer look from the garden. We stood there for a while and then started back to entrance.

If you feel tired while you walk you can catch up your breath under the trees where they have put seats to sit and relax. In fact we on our way back sat under the banyan tree for a while.

Banyan tree

After 20mins walk we reached the auroville entrance. There is a restaurant in the main entrance itself, you can get all kind of foods from southindian to western food. We had our lunch in that restaurant. The food was really good.

near restaurant entrance

restaurant

You can see people from different nationalities, in fact we had a feeling that we are some where out of India, that much foreigners crowd in the restaurant.That shows auroville is been attracted to many foreigners, not only foreigners also the people around here in India. That's the reason the number of people visiting this place is keep on increasing. It's incredible.