'Awesome' is the answer!

Nothing can be more energizing than a good weekend. We had a beautiful kick-start to the weekend, with Babs joining us on Friday!

A word about Babs, alias Babuchettan – a guy with contagious enthusiasm, he is elder to me by almost 12 years, but looks younger than me. (Oh No! I hate myself for writing this).

A weekend experience unfolds here! I love to jot down each of such experiences, just for one reason. It is fun to read it after a long time and it always gifts me the same feel again.  

As soon as Babs got home, he told me, “ Mole, I am moving to a new apartment next week, would like to buy some cute furniture from Pondy.” Whenever my folks visit Pondy, it is my duty to take them around for shopping, something which I thoroughly enjoy! So I was more than ready and assured him that we would go around Pondy the next day. I even thought about a few shops which I knew, but on Saturday when I landed back from school, they were all ready to go to some “Kenji” furniture. I had never heard of such a place, I kept wondering how he got info about this one. Anyway, I didn't kick up any fuss, I got ready and we headed for “Kenji”. 

As I had got hooked to just one thought, it came out from me involuntarily! “Where is this place, exactly?” 

He said, “Auroville!” 

Aaahhhhhh, I got it! None other Dhanesh could have given him the info, ‘coz, Auroville is one of his favourite haunts. Visiting Auroville is like pouring some 'energy tonic into the soul' for him!!!!! Needless to say, he didn’t even mind driving through the rough suburban roads there. ( Hey, I can use this point elsewhere!) 

I guess I had written about Auroville in one of my earlier posts. It is such a terrific place to visit and stay! Auroville is a universal township in the making, with people from around the globe living here. We have been to Auroville a no: of times, but I should say, this one was unique altogether. Usually, we make a good research about the community we wish to visit, collect info about the people there and get a route map to the place, but as this was a sudden plan, and we weren’t really prepared, but decided to follow Mohanlal’s policy of “chodichuuuu chodichhhuu pokam!”

We advanced through the ECR, and reached the point where the roads diverged. Here started the confusion! As my Tamil is as good as the English of the people there, I requested Babs to take up the task of asking the route. We proceeded along an empty stretch of road, with not a soul to ask the route! The lady whom we asked said it was some 6 km from the visitors’ centre. The roads were good till the visitors' centre!! From then on we ‘enjoyed’ the mud roads, which gave us the feel of a boat journey. The car stopped at a place, where it looked like the end of the world!!! But when we asked around, we found there was some 3 km to our destination. At this point, I even doubted if we would be able to get back to Pondy, it almost resembled a small forest, the ones similar to the ‘woods’ described by Frost in his poems! I kept the thoughts to myself! But, Sankunni voiced it, like mom, like son.........what a lovely combo we make!!!

Confused!

Not a soul to ask the route....

Avoo..we caught sight of this lady, who helped us with finding the way...

We decided not to give up, Babs was in full enthusiasm, he got down at several points to make sure we were right on the track….we met many foreigners on the way, all Aurovillians. The weather was pleasant and the cool breeze energized us! It is a pollution-free zone and the way was sprinkled with the many guest houses of Auroville. We were also able to spot many of the unique training centres of Auroville, which we had always longed to visit. Their websites were familiar, though!

http://www.auroville.org/environment/avag/svaram/svaram.htm

http://www.aurovilleguesthouses.org/gs-profiledetails.php?id=12

Bamboo Research Centre, Auroville.
It was started some 40+ years ago, they have some innovations from bamboo! 

At last......our Destination....
Kenji, The New Dawn Carpentry Workshop...

                                      http://www.indiamart.com/kenji-japanese-woodcraft/ 

 Finally, after many a twist and turn, we were successful in hitting our destination – Kenji, the New Dawn Carpentry Workshop.

On the way back, we got a terrific view of the Matrimandir, one of our favourite places in Pondy!

Though at first, it looked like we would get lost, it turned out to be one of the nicest trips we made to this place………On our journey back to the concrete jungle, we made this good decision - to spend a weekend at one of these guest houses… to enjoy the serene atmosphere! I never miss a chance to raise my hand for something exciting/ something new/ something different, so this one really paid off! Nothing can be as refreshing as spending some time in this calm and peaceful place, studded with trees. Looking forward to it from now……

Many times I got reminded about the trip we made to Auroville, with Romaa Ma'am....

One thing is assured – this place can radiate joy and gift you the much-needed peace of mind. So, if you have any idea of hitting this part of the globe, make sure you stay at Auroville at least for a day or two…. …..Do make a trip, it is surely a place for people who appreciate the finer things of life!