Parents’ 54^th anniversary – @ Pondy

Well, its not everyday one celebrates 54years of wedded bliss, admittedly the bliss was blitz too, at times! (smile), but then unarguably something to celebrate, and with both now in their mid to late 70s, we decided its safer to drive down rather than fly somewhere. Well, as they say, sometimes you see the world but not the next town, they had not been to Pondicherry, and we decided why not…after all we were all recovering from the aftermath of Toshu’s 12^th std exams…! So, after having a Satyanarayana Puja at home on June 12^th to thank the Lord for the long innings, we decided to leave a few days after.

I booked 2 rooms at Zest Big Beach. Parents came over on 17^th, Sunday evening home, and the last of the packing was done amidst quite a bit of chaotic opinions and friendly jousting, an early dinner and we went to bed by 10pm as we wanted to start at our regular time of 6am.

Day 1 – Bangalore – Pondicherry – 18/06/2012

Breakfast and lunch packed, coffee drunk, bags loaded, people loaded, the Scorpio rolled out, Jai Balaji!, at 5min before 6am, unbelievably a wee bit ahead of schedule! We took the usual route of Bangalore – Krishnagiri, turned left onto Chennai road at the 2^nd flyover and turned right soon after after a km or so on the way to Chengam - Tiruvanamalai – Tindivanam – Pondy. The road up to Tindivanam is very poor, with more potholes than road. Anyways, we stopped soon after for idlis and coffee, which was packed from home and moved on. We stopped at the Tiruvanamalai Arunachaleswara temple as amma wanted to go in, so we did!

Arunachaleswara Temple, also known as Annamalaiyar, spread over 24 acres, is the largest Siva temple in India, and smaller only to the Vishnu temple of Srirangam in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu. Arunachaleswara is said to be at least 2000 years old, with the gopurums (towers) and stone structure dating back 1200 years. This dating is from an inscription in the structure that was made during the reign of the Chola kings who ruled in the ninth century A.D. Arunachaleswara Temple is where Sri Ramana Maharshi initially stayed when he came to Tiruvannamalai in 1896. He lived there for about six months.

                                      
                                       

Fortunately for us, since it was relatively early, the number of people were few and amma managed to walk up the steps and fairly long walk with minimal discomfort. We spent a good bit of time in the ancient some say, over 2000year old sanctum sanctorum where the walls have turned black with the soot of the oil wicks lit everyday for over 20 centuries and the air is thick with the passage of time, or so it seems, to be a part of this ancient ritual performed over and over by millions is awe inspiring and the spiritual bliss you experience is absolutely profound.

The Thousand-Pillared hall was built by king Krishna Deva Raya. The exactly 1000 pillars are inscribed with the sculptures of the Nayak period. King Krishna Deva Raya would sit in this hall and receive visitors. Among the stones of the floor of the temple are a number with inscriptions. These were parts of ancient buildings that were torn down to make way for newer structures. Archeologists have read many of these to reconstruct the history of the temple before about 1000 AD. After visiting this and seeing several foreigners who stay here to learn the Vedas and feeling humbled by the entire spiritual journey, we bought some prasadam, a book to read, and resumed our journey to Pondicherry…a temple visit to be long cherished. We had spent about an hour there.

After another brief stop near Tindivanam at 12.30pm for a packed-at-home lunch of curd rice and vegetable, we continued on and oprned out on to NH66, a wonderful road to enter Pondicherry at 1.30pm and Zest Big Beach Resort at 2.10pm.

The staff were friendly and courteous, and after downing the welcome drink of “Nannari” and getting a seashell necklace, we checked into our rooms which were opposite each other. The cool AC was very welcoming and we dropped off for a deep sleep.

Waking up at 5pm and making a hot cup of tea, went up to amma’s room to have it with them and found amma quite tired and convinced her to rest for the rest of the evening, so amma and I settled down to chat with our cuppa, and Ranga and anna went for a walk along the beach. Toshu decided to dive into the pool. 

Everyone returned to base by 7pm, we settled down for a drink and a leisurely chat and had a simple dinner and everyone retired for some quiet reading and to bed early.

Day 2 – Pondicherry – 19/06/2012

After a relaxed walk on the beach admiring the nature’s beauty hard pressed to believe that in January of this year Cyclone Thane had destroyed this resort and most of Pondy’s greenery and had laid waste the utilities like power, water and telecommunication. The Big Beach Resort itself lost 1000trees and the kitchen and nearly all of the rooms suffered some damage, now they have repaired and made functional 40 of the 120 rooms and the conference room doubles up as the dining room, however the service remains impeccable and the staff as full of smiles as ever. Kudos to Club Mahindra and its employees for their resilience and zest for quality service. Iam sure the resort will offer 100% accommodation shortly.

After breakfast we left at 10am to visit the beach, posed for several photos at the Gandhi statue and the clean and beautifully scenic corniche itself and then to the Ashram. Enjoying the balm of silence in the urban oasis of the Ashram, we relaxed, and I could not resist but buy a few books by Aurobindo. We then drove to Auroville. By this time it was 12.15pm. After parking, we had to walk about half a kilometer to the Reception which has a 10min AV presentation about itself and then took a golf cart to the viewing point to see the Maitri Mandir. Visitors can go to the Mandir with prior reservation, which we didn’t have. Amma and I gave this small jaunt a miss, as she was already tired. Ranga, thankfully found the restaurant where we settled down for some pure organic, tasty lunch. Some yummy Euro food cooked by a diverse demography makes for an interesting experience. A pleasant not too hot sun and some great food and the cultural ambience was just fabulous. By then, it was past 2pm and parents were tired and we decided to hit back, as we had to travel close to 40kms, we reached the resort by 3pm.

Evening saw Ranga and Toshu jump into the pool whereas we all headed out to gaze at the sea, which for some reason was very rough yet its raw power made it plausible to believe that something as beautiful as the sea can certainly turn into a devastating monster which can destroy everything in its path. We all then moved on for a lovely dinner buffet, which had some wonderful dishes.

We decided to go to bed a bit early as everyone was sated yet a bit tired.

Day 3 – Pondicherry – Bangalore 20/06/2012

We woke up at 5.30am to a bright day and birds cooing away, a brisk car wash put Ranga and me in hunger mode, so had a quick bath and reached the restaurant for a lovely buffet breakfast by 8am. We had requested for a packed lunch and the chef dished out a biryani and salan at 8.45am, fantastic! We checked at the travel desk for an alternative route and we realized there was one though 50kms longer, no hesitation, we decided to try it! We crawled out of Pondy after about 1 ½ hrs.of driving, we found Pondy somehow more crowded this year (after all we do go every year), and took the road to Tindivanam. Route taken – Pondy – Tindivanam – Vandavasi – Arni – Vellore – Krishnagiri – Bangalore (402kms in all). I certainly recommend this route, as its way better than the Tiruvanamalai route, despite it being a little longer. The roads are good, traffic is less and time taken in spite of traveling longer, remains unchanged. On reaching Vellore, we took the twists and turns till we reached NH7 once again and stopped at a restaurant, Rachna Veg for some lovely meals, hot and tasty (we decided to keep the packed lunch for dinner:-), and then moved on the fabulous roads and we reached Bangalore at 4pm, then it took us 1 ½ hours to reach home.

A lovely getaway for the family, enjoyed by all and I was glad I could take my parents out and that we completed an enjoyable holiday without incident. I really thank God for that…and hope we can maybe as a family do a few more of such trips.