A couple of days at Auroville

2019 has been the most traveled year for both J and me starting with Dubai for our wedding anniversary and then on to other locations that I have blogged about. It was in the first week of October, Dussehra holidays, soon after the Tada waterfall trip, we decided to visit Auroville. Not a planned trip and Pondicherry being just a stone’s throw away, we managed to get a last minute booking in a home stay at Auroville. Though we have been to Pondicherry so many times, this was our first to Auroville, yeah, unbelievably so.

Lovely roads and clear skies

Auroville - the sign board

A long drive needs a fresh early morning start and that’s our usual practice and we were greeted to a fine bright morning, with clear skies and soft white clouds that created a good tapestry all along our drive and reached Auroville by 10.00 am

The home stay

The home stay that J booked was within the Botanical garden of Auroville and was modelled like a traditional south Indian household with wooden pillars, red oxide floors, teak wood furniture with verandahs all around the house amid thick greenery.  This homestay was surrounded by chikkoo trees aka mud berries, that I love, though most of the fruits were unripe.  Within the compound there were lot of flowering plants like the roses,  crossandras and varieties of Jasmine which spread its fragrance in the evening.

This place had a common kitchen which we could use along with the other guests, though we used it only for our morning Tea, also had a wood fired Pizza oven, if we cared make one that is. Felt at home at this place especially with the care taker Abhi’s two little kids, who got friendly with us and would accompany us during our botanical garden trips. Since it was Dussehra, they had holidays too.

J was keen on meditation at Mathiri Mandhir and that’s why we went in there as soon we reached there.  One big miss of this trip was that due to the holiday rush, we couldn’t get a slot for meditation on all the three days we were there.

The first day hence, after checking out Mathiri Mandir briefly and their timings, a bit disappointed for missing out on meditation, we rested at our homestay before we went in for a short trip around the Botanical garden, followed by a long walk on the roads covered by green canopy at Auroville.  Most of the roads here, especially the one leading to Mathiri Mandir had these quaint cafes, which were quite inviting.

Auroville is synonymous with Pondicherry and it is a tiny town where people from around the world come over to live their dreams.  There are stories about corporate honchos, doctors, scientists and others from all walks of life who come here and turn into organic farming, becoming teachers and mechanics and living simple lives.  You see them all around here in Auroville.  This was a dry land where people feared to live earlier and thanks to the sustained efforts of the Aurobindo Ashram, this has turned into a lush Greenland leaving not a patch as a dry land within Auroville.  It also put in some existential questions in our minds.

The plan for the next day morning was a trip to the Auro beach which was a couple of kilometres away from our homestay.   A little drive to cross the ECR and we were at a lovely beach.  Sparsely crowded, the beach was literally all ours.  With the sun coming out, leaving its rays on the salty water and letting it glisten, giving us a gleam to our morning, soaking us up in the serenity only an ocean can bring. After a brisk walk, a photo shoot and some time in the water we got back to  Mathiri Mandir.  The visitor centre there has a nice restaurant that serves good continental and Indian breakfast.  That is the only place which did not demand a Auro Card – an essential there at Auroville.

The Auro beach, all for ourselves

Not wanting to waste a minute of our time there, we picked up the pass for the Mathri mandir view point.  Auroville means ‘the city of the dawn’ and was founded by a French lady who was called ‘The Mother’; and was the successor to Shri Aurobindo, a well- known spiritual leader. The town was founded by her with the aim of creating a place which was a symbol of human unity in the 70’s.

Spread across around 20 sq km the place is full of calmness and tranquility and the walk up to Matri mandir definitely refreshed our body and soul. The 1 km long walk amidst soothing greenery which also gives ample shade from the blazing sun while you listen to the sounds of birds that soothe the tantalized souls of the city.   J and I had some deep discussions about how simple life can be if only we chose it to be simple.   There is a free bus service and a shuttle service to move up this path, and we chose to walk.  There is a revered silence that engulfs this place, in spite of so many people around.  Along this mud pathway 12 slabs of rocks, each with a painting of a different colored flower, symbolizing a human quality – sincerity, peace, equality, generosity, goodness, courage, progress, receptivity, aspiration, perseverance, gratitude and humility.

The mighty Mathri Mandir

 Resting under the green awning of
Banyan tree 

At the end of the path rose up in front of us, the Mathri Mandir.  Against the backdrop of the blue sky, it looked stunning. The Mathri mandir is a golden globe like structure coming out of the earth, symbolized by the 12 stone petals. The view point was a bit crowded but we still could find a spot to sit down and stare at this marvelous structure.  On our way back, the sun burning us down a bit, we reached the great banyan tree, under which we sat for a while.   J even dozed a bit there.  

We had planned to have lunch at Tantos Trattoria Pizzeria, highly recommended by friends who travel there often.  We had to park our car under a large banyan tree grown wild and walked up to this place. It was a small open air kind of restaurant, but it had a zany elegance with roofed pergolas.  The other diners were mix of Indians, foreigners mostly young and with a nice ambiance with a wonderful vibe enhanced by the natural setting.  They had the original wood fired ovens  into which the freshly made pizza base went in and came out to be topped with our choice of toppings.  The food served was more than what J and I could devour.   Though not a pizza person, Tantos lived up to its name filling us up not just food, but with a great feel.  

Pizza in the oven

We had an unforgettable evening though.  Visiting Pondicherry beach promenade was in our list, so we went up there which was around 12 kms from our home stay.  Reminiscing our earlier memories of the place, didn’t watch the time go by and started back around 8pm.   With the GPS in place, we didn’t bother much about our route back, until we were by the headlights of our vehicle.  We had covered a good 8kms by then, and GPS told us there is just 4kms left, so J decided to proceed precariously.

I could sense J tightening up a bit and I was terrified.   I sat in complete silence, having lost the mobile signals, but the roads weren’t getting any better,  It was a plain mud road and felt like forever in the wilderness until we reached a gate.  The locked gate was not a familiar one, though GPS announced, You have arrived. Not able to reach our caretaker, the only option was to go back to a place where we got the signals back.  So we drove back through the same eerie pathway, until we got the signals back, and this time after changing our desitnation to Mathri Mandir we were able to come to the familiar roads.  That was a freaky excitement though.  

The road that scared the hell out of us

So we had an adhoc activity for the next day – figure out how and where we lost our way. J was so particular and he did.  The botanical garden is in  50 acre plot and this home stay is on the nethermost side of this plot.  There is a pathway right behind this garden, and GPS has shown the shortest route to the botanical garden and taken us through the road less traveled literally, in the opposite side.   We laughed so hard because it didn’t take us less than 30 seconds to come to the road that led us to the locked gate.  We drove through that same way in broad daylight and wondered how darkness and fear can change everything.

At one of the landscaped water bodies @Botanical garden

The guppies we caught

We went around the Botanical garden that has luxurious landscapes, formal gardens, nurseries, arboretums and also a warehouse that sells plants, garden equipment, accessories and even organic manure. The caretakers kids were around us showing us where we can pick up gardening stuff.  I laid my hands on a oval shaped terracotta tub, for a reasonable price  and J picked some equipment for the rubber estate in Kerala.

The best thing about the day was we went to a pond nearby and caught a whole lot guppies growing wild. Surprised J enjoyed catching those little fellas along with me and those little kids and we brought them home in a 5 liter Bisleri bottle.

Auroville has some genuine dairy farms that I have heard of and so we picked some dairy products including some exotic cheese from these places, which were packed neatly.  Dennu is a fan of all kind of cheese and I was sure he would give me the widest grin.

We had planned to get back to Mathiri Mandir then, and visit the meditation centre and stay there again, to experience Auroville all over.   Whenever that is.