I have always like South Indians- due to their down to earth nature and simple way of life. I have a pen friend in Chennai since the last eight years. She is not exactly a pen friend as these days we have a chat friend, because we chat rather than write letters. Sandhya and I started chatting on Yahoo Messenger and then on Windows Messenger and later Whatsapp. I remember the first time we shared our pictures on email, sending those as attachments. This time when I went to Chennai, we met for the second time. Chennai has recovered from the heavy floods except for a few bad roads.

Sandhya and me

I visited Mahabalipuram en route to Chennai. It is named after Mahabali who was the grandson of Prahlada. Historical evidences indicate it was a trade centre in the olden days. There are wonderful monolithic sculptures from Hindu mythology in Mahabalipuram. The Pancha Rathas, Arjuna Penance, Krishna Butter rock, the sea shore temple and the elephant statue are the notable monuments. The old lighthouse has a great view; wherefrom one see the entire Mahabalipuram.

 Pancha Rathas

The old lighthouse 

   

 

Butter rock

The elephant statue 

Sandhyas parents Ashok uncle and Manju aunty welcomed me to their house in Chennai. She is a Marwadi and I had a special traditional lunch prepared by aunty. Sandhya and her cousins Poonam(and her daughter Tanvi) and Payal joined us for lunch. We all lunched in the same plate. It was a great experience, I could not keep a tab on how much I ate as that’s what happens when you eat together.

Lunch 

Uncle booked this auto wallah who took me around Chennai to see the famous landmarks. This is a great way to travel if you want to cover maximum places in the least time. I went to the Chennai Government Museum, the Marina beach – the longest in India, the Ranganathan Street Market and the Sowcarpet market.  South India is colourful- the temples, houses, attires; they know how to use colour. I also saw some places on the go – take a quick peek:

Chennai museum

The public library 

Poompuhar store

Gandhi beach 

Marina beach

Fishermen colony

Church in Chennai

Temple 

Market in chennai

A picture definitely says a thousand words when you don't understand a single word - the auto uncle and me 

One incident that stuck me while travelling in a public bus around Chennai made me realise that ‘unity in diversity’ is quite difficult in some parts of India. There are two incidents actually. The first one- I was sitting between two Tamil women in the bus. They never helped me with directions and didn’t even try sign language to help me with the stop I was supposed to get down at. After some time, the popcorn one of them was eating flew on me due to the wind and as I removed the popcorn from my hair, I gave her an its-ok-smile. She gave me a I-don’t -care-at-all look and continued eating her snack. 

Another incident- Due to long hours of travel and fatigue, I was feeling nauseous in the bus. There was no place to sit. I needed fresh air so I went near the door and sat there. There was a guy sitting there and he was with a group of one more guy and three girls. They found it amusing that I sat like that and the three girls gave me friendly smiles. After the next stop, there was a place to sit. So I got up and sat on the seat. Just as I got up, the three girls hurriedly came and sat where I was sitting near the door.  They had gone for a day outing and were so happy to follow in my footsteps as they clicked pictures of themselves sitting like that.

What I realised is – the younger generation of South Indians are friendlier. The older generation doesn’t speak to you if you don’t talk to them in their mother tongue, while the younger ones are forthcoming. Maybe due to exposure… What I also noticed is, they have this aversion for Hindi, but they all are quite fluent in English. Even in Mumbai, people answer in English even though you ask them something in Hindi. India has diversity, but do we really have unity? No wonder the English ruled over us for so many years. Do we realise that now we use English the most – leaving aside this war of languages. Yes, what ‘unites’ us is English!  Sad. But true. I love English, but Hindi is my national language. The wonderful South Indian languages are dearer to me even though I can only manage a ‘How are you?’ I can barely manage to speak a sentence in Hindi or Gujarati without an English word in between. I am ashamed of that. While the South Indians can speak their mother tongue more fluently, they are indifferent to other languages. We need to find a balance here, don’t we?

However, I am happy that my generation of South Indians are Indians first. No wonder I have so many amazing South Indian friends. 

Just like Irrfan Khan’s character in ‘Life of Pi’, I have always felt very apprehensive about different religions. Some traditions are difficult for me to understand and I also feel they are daunting. This is only my personal opinion; I feel that these customs and traditions take me farther away from God or that supreme power rather than nearer. I had heard about Auroville in Pondicherry and felt that it is certainly my kind of place as I have always felt more inclined to spirituality and meditation rather than religious traditions and worship.

So I decided to go visit it and meditate at the ‘Matri Mandir’. No doubt the experience was totally worth it. I have never felt so peaceful in any temple, church or mosque. I meditated and felt rejuvenated. This is certainly the place for me as my connection with the Supreme is beyond all religions, traditions and customs.  I won’t talk more about what exactly is Auroville, as a better place to read about that is their website: http://www.auroville.org/

The Matrimandir model

The way you are supposed to meditate

I took a flight from Mumbai to Chennai and left for Pondicherry by bus. I like to travel by non AC public transport as it helps you get an idea about the place you are travelling to. Every place has its distinct culture, colours, people, clothes and also smells. You need to take it all in. If you don’t smell the rustic flavours of the roads and countryside, your journey is incomplete.

Everyone around me spoke only Tamil; I was lucky to find one couple who spoke some English and helped me with the place I was supposed to get down at. The highway (ECR) was the most beautiful with the beach all along the three hour ride. I met few friends in Pondicherry, who live in Auroville and stayed at this beautiful guesthouse called Avision.

The guesthouse I stayed at

Alejandrina Kohan, Argentina

Stefan Ruefing, Germany

People from all over the world come to Auroville to meditate. This place is flocked with creative people like Rajvi, who is a ceramic artist from Ahmedabad and Vaishnavi, who is an architect from Hyderabad. Artists keep frequenting Pondicherry and Auroville, thanks to the beautiful French colonies and the architecture.

Tea in a ceramic cup

Amidst the serene beauty of this place, I found this delightful place to eat, called Dinesh. It is owned by Subhash; a modest guy who doesn’t care whether I blog about his restaurant or not, but I am writing nevertheless as I loved the ambience and food :P The South Indian style ‘paratha and gravy’ and the egg dishes are a must try. You get free Wi-fi which is icing on the cake, which is another reason for this place to be the most favourite hang-out place of people from all over the world visiting Auroville as they would most certainly have data connectivity issues.

Dinesh

Vinay who works at Auroville showed me around, he was a great help. It was wonderful how everybody knew everyone else in this small universal town. I saw three beaches – the Pondicherry beach, the Bodhi beach – lined with small fishermen boats and huts and the Srima beach – I thought I was a great swimmer, but only the locals can manage the wild waves of this amazing beach.

       

Fighting the waves

It was just one day before the full moon, and we enjoyed a campfire in the woods.

The picturesque French colonies of Pondicherry reminded of the award winning movie ‘Life of Pi’, which was shot here. I also visited the Aurobindo ashram and the beautiful old churches. The Christmas celebrations were in full swing.

There are lot of restaurants serving wood fired pizzas like Tantos and Brothers Pizzeria. Mango Hill has a great ambience and lip smacking sea food. I also ate at the solar kitchen in Auroville, where the meals are cooked using the solar energy.

Nitin, Shrishti,me, Pallavi, Vinay

Lunch at solar kitchen

Make sure you visit the Auroville store for buying souvenirs. They also have a delectable collection of handmade items and books and the bestseller Eco Femme sanitary napkin, which I purchased. It's a great handmade product which helps conserve the environment. 

I bought some 15 books on religion, philosophy, the Mothers life and Sri Aurobindos life. 

 Visit http://www.auroville.com/ to buy their products.

It is a great place to visit, at least once in your lifetime. 

Quiz results for the 'Open With Smile' gifting contest

Once again, got a terrific response; this time, from all over India. The best answer was from Kalrav Acharya, who shared a truly wonderful experience. He got a lovely and thoughtful gift, which is absolutely my kind of gift. Unfortunately he is travelling and around Pondicherry, Chennai and will be leaving for USA soon. Hence, it will be difficult sending the gift card to him. Here is his answer:

“I was leaving home for a long time, and me and my friends were getting very emotional.

At this point - one of my friends came up with a farewell gift idea that blew me out of the water.

This was given to me when I was leaving and it was a complete surprise.

What she did:
She decided to separate my time in Auroville between 'pull me ups' and 'shared memories'.

On small blue pieces of paper, she wrote encouraging comments that had to do with my life in Auroville and my reason for departure. And on white pieces of paper- she wrote about the wonderful times we shared together. They were tied neatly in small rolls of paper. And put in a small jar from a locally made jam jar. There were about 50 of them- and there were specific instructions of when to pick which color.

It was the best gift one could ask for leaving home.”

Love this gift from the mystery girl, it is so important to understand when to remember which memory to keep going in life. A true friend like her would go the extra mile to gift something so thoughtful.

So here are the two winners:

Bhagyashree Bhaya

“On my brother's 19th birthday I gifted him a DSLR with my own savings and though it shook my budget for the next 3 -4 months but that is just worth it. He never demanded one, but I have seen him struggling hard to click pictures through his phone and upload on social platforms where he can reach millions of other photographers who appreciate others work as well. He might be still a kid in my parent's eye who is not aware of what world is outside but he is clear about his passion and his desires and that is what matters in the end. And so this is what I gifted him… his passion…”

Sister love :) 

Kunjal Malik

“Best gift I ever got was from my parents a very beautiful Pendant once I entered my teenage.

Best gift I ever gifted was to my parents their International trip to Dubai, after spending so much on my wedding n making it grand that's all I could give them in return, gave them their second honeymoon.”

This one describes the most beautiful bond between a child and parents.

I wish I could gift a card to this answer too, though there are only two gift cards, but sharing it nevertheless.

Mitul Khamar

“I want to share with you one experience about gift of my life. Before 3 years I wanted to gift something special to my younger sister on her birthday and finally I decided to gift her Activa. 

On her birthday, when I told her to close her eyes and put keys on her hand she really cried with happiness and I can't explain that moment in words because she was very happy as she did not expect that gift, I still remember her face and I was really happy also because first time I have seen her this much happy.”

Congratulations to the winners :)