My South India Trip

I went for a short trip down South with two of my labmates, Bhakti and Ideh. The trip wasn't exactly short condsidering our 24 hour train journey to Chennai and the 5 hour bus ride thereafter to Pondicherry. After spending 2 nights and a day there we spent 6 hours on a bus to reach Trichy. We'd gone to Trichy to attend a 3 day coneference. From Trichy I came back alone to Pune with a brief stop over in Bangalore.

Here are a few excerpts from what all happened during the journey.

MR. SORRY

This was a character sitting in our compartment... absolutely meddlesome. He interferred while Ideh, Bhakti and I played cards telling us the rules on rummi. While Bhakti was being an amateur astrologist he once again interrupted to give his theories. Once he brought some weird people along with him to sit in our compartment. So I hid myself behind my Chemistry book Atkins while Bhakti made good use on the newspaper. Then he got some people who had been smoking fined by the TC when he had himself been smoking. Towards the end he had a fight with one of the train staff who was collecting money for the food that was served. Raising his voice he flashed his wallet showing something and saying filmy things like "you don't know me".

And after all this Ideh asks him how we can get to the Chennai bus-terminus in order to take a bus to Pondicherry!!

Anyway... It was Ideh only who came up with the above name for this man who had made a habit of saying sorry whenever we gave him cold looks as he'd try to get involved in our activities.

AUROVILLE ASHRAM

One of the places that we visited at Pondicherry was Auroville which was started by a lady follower of Sri Aurobindo who is fondly called by everyone as "The Mother". The idea of the starting the Ashram was that there should be one place on Earth where there are no differences on basis of religion, caste, creed or country and where noone works for personal goals. There are no posts at the Ashram and the researchers there are not awarded any degrees.

My one main question is that when at Auroville Ashram they do not believe in idol worship then why build at its central point a Matri Mandir?

Would the Ashram still be able to function if it was not started in a secluded place like the outskirts of Pondicherry but somewhere in the heart of a thriving city like Mumbai?

They might not be giving any degrees or offering any posts but what about the feelings of competition and jealousy that are so inherent in humans?

In order to unite people you tell them to leave their religious and cultural beliefs behind. I believe the real task would be to make them tolerant to each other's philosophies while still holding on to theirs.

DOGS AT AURO BEACH

While Ideh went to have a swim in the sea, Bhakti and I sat down at the beach cafe to eat something. My stomach was growling on account that it was nearing 4 pm and we had taken breakfast at 10 am. Besides we had walked quite a bit in Auroville Ashram and also in the local market for shopping. Soon growling came from some place else. Two huge dogs came and went on staring at us. One Uncle came to our help some 3 times and pushed the dogs away but they were real stubborn and kept on returning to our table. Finally Ideh came to our rescue and saved the day. But she couldn't save our appetites. The dogs succeeded in getting what they wanted... our food.

Anyway... the fun that I had at the beach eventually compensated for those few minutes (which felt like hours then) of discomfort.

IDEH

There's so much I want to write here that I am going to dedicate my next whole post to her.

DINNER AT COAST SIDE HOTEL

The food was absolutely yum but the service was verry slow. When they didn't serve us water for 20 min I went and complained. 5 min later Bhakti literally banged the table of the man-in-charge. Everyone seemed to be waiting for food to come. Finally when one group was obliged they gave a huge round of applause to the waiter and even tapped their glasses with spoons. :p

BUS RIDE TO TRICHY

There is only one word that I have for the scenery.... green. But the number of shades of green that were there were amazing. Obviously my unskillful efforts at photography couldn't capture what my eyes saw. It was beautiful and peaceful all along and a nice journey to contemplate. I didn't feel the need to talk in order to pass time.

SRIRANGAM TEMPLE

The temples were beautiful but what caught my attention was this sign... "Pay Rs 20 to go by shorter route (to see the temple idols)". It was sad to find men having turned even places of worship into a business for minting money. Another disheartening spectacle was to learn that these temples were restricted to Hindu's only. Had I read the notice before I wouldn't have joined the queue. Why do people create and then highlight the differences? Who are we to decide who is eligible to enter a place of worship or not?