A short break – at Puducherry

Gandhi statue

Promanede Beach 

It’s been a long dream to visit Puducherry (Pondicherry) and every time I attempted to plan for a visit – I always had some thing else come up; this year too I have been thinking and even made a plan with family in summer holidays, then again David could not make it as it was clashing with some of his work commitments.

The thought was always there and in my conversation I casually shared with my friend, and she agreed to come along and was highly motivated; as she has been a great devotee of Sri Aurobindo  and she showed all the quotes which she preserved in a small little booklet and had kept it safe till date.

So I had enough support as I was not alone in my desire to visit this place…. So my friend booked our tickets almost two months in advance and I was excited to spend some time in the ashram there and go around the beaches which are beautifully maintained.

Botanical Garden

Collection of seeds in the Garden

Some very special places to remember is the botanical garden; I love trees and enjoy surrounding myself with greenery… so this place was cool, breezy and well maintained with a small aquarium lighted and decorated beautifully, capturing the imagination of kids,  and another place where there were collection of seeds with botanical names and neatly stored and covered with glass, wherein we can see them.

Tree as old as 108 years 

I was fascinated by a tree there which is supposed to be 108 years old, as told by one of the care taker.

We went around this place and then we moved to Aurobindo Ashram, a quiet place and there were a lot of people walking into, photographs are not allowed; plenty of volunteers to guide you as you enter; we sat there for a while and meditated… the place was calm, we are not allowed to speak and tombstone of both Sr Aurobindo and Mother were decorated with beautiful flowers, rose petals and lighted with sandal wood agarbathis.

Pomegrade beach

Domus Dei where the mass is in French

The church is opposite to the Beach

They also sell books, images, key chains, scented soaps, perfumes, bags, t shirt, saree, etc for the visitors and those who interested to buy. I picked up a few books meditation, some scented incense sticks and perfumes.

I loved this place; and we travelled by the east coast bus which was a pleasant trip; cool, full of breeze and all around greenery. I enjoyed visiting all the places that I wanted to went around visiting different places.

There are a few more places we visited almost all the places in pondicherry, shall write about it in my next post.