Pondicherry - Tranquebar December 2011

It was one of those days, sunny, not too hot and just too irresistible to let it go to waste…so the 2 of us decided to make the trip to Pondicherry and beyond…Well, novices in the art of public transport, we boarded the bus from Koyumbedu (CMBT or whatever you’d like to call it), to all the philistines who might want to correct the spelling, I have 2 words ……Anyways, we digress, the bus made decent time getting out of the city and onwards to ECR, and beyond, leaving the city madness behind, and into the breeze and the open roads leading to freedom (any time away from this city is in fact that feeling, but then we are all trapped somewhere or the other, enough philosophizing).

Met a colleague from the office heading to Pondhicherry on the same bus for the only plausible reason that many make this holy trip for ---- the divine water. Well, I was going for a totally different reason, and we made good time landing there at 4 in the evening. A plum cake and a short auto ride later we were there at the rocky beach next to Vaithipukkam… Was able to capture a few shots of the evening sun with the Bay of Bengal lashing in front.

Don’t know if it’s the shallowness of the shore or the winds, or what, but the waves never seem to subside, and the breeze, well you just have to be there. I guess most of the beaches do bring out the same feeling, it just needs to be clean, and secluded, and couple that with the green water in the fast fading sunlight, you have an experience worth dying for.

Some of these pics are from V’s SLR, but I’m going to unashamedly stake claim to them all here. Kept clicking snaps there and simply enjoying the wind on my face till the sun finally bid us goodnight. We decided to take the walk from between the local dwellers along the coast up to the other side….the change in affluence is quite easily visible here, as we move from the poor shanties to the lavish guest houses and hotels to the other side. Passed by the ‘Sea Side Guest house’ I had visited 7 years back, though most of places now have the ‘sea side’ phrase in their names itself here. The only difference that you can see in the beach here is the paved walkway between the road and the rocky beach, and the number of street peddlers, selling the usual beach assortments.

Ah, did manage to visit the Aurobindo ashram near the marketplace. serene place, the tiled street outside, the orchids lining up the path inside the building, the flower arrangement on the Samadhi, the multitude of people sitting around the place, some prostate in front of it, others simply sitting there enjoying the peace. Stood there for a few minutes before venturing out into the marketplace on the parallel road. What a difference a few years makes, a few years back and this place was like a local small bazaar, none of the big brand name shops that had come up now, what a pity, urbanization does spoil a few things I guess. We also stopped at the temple with the elephant patting people on their heads with its trunks, being rewarded with a coin or some stuff to eat for its effort. Poor thing, wonder if it enjoys the captivity and the monotony of things in the city. Back at the seashore, the rumblings of the stomach overshadowed the ones from the seawaves, and we headed to Le Café. Not in the mood for a lavish French cuisine right now, we headed to the open air first floor and the buffet, give me some decent dal-roti any day with some salad I say. Not bad for a 100 bucks, after a long walk.

After calling it a day at 10 in the night, by which time there was no soul on the roads, hit the sack hard and did indeed sleep like a log. Overslept and just missed the sunrise by 20 minutes or so.

Anyways, was still there in time to get some interesting snaps of the waves splashing in the foreground, and the morning sun in the back. It would have come even better with an SLR though, but my point and shoot is enough cumbersome for me. Spent a good half hour enjoying the sun rise further, after which I headed to the pier beyond Le Café. A few people can be seen doing their morning yoga here and the rest, well, just happy tourists.

 The pier is at a delightful setting I must say, close to where there’s a fishermen’s settlement. You can see most of the boats parked there, with the village folk sorting out their day’s catch from their nets. We decided to walk down and take a closer look, and ended up spending a considerable amount of time under the pier itself. Beautiful place, the waves keep on lashing the wooden pillars under the pier, and If you’re a bit adventurous like us, you’d venture out onto one of the limbs further over the water. I did, and did get drenched a lot, but the experience is truly worth it.

The force of the waves at this point is brute enough to discourage the mouseheart that I am from venturing further than the second leg of the wooden pier, though even there I would be holding on to the roof!

Time is always of the essence and it forced us to move on, drenched shoes in hand, walking back on the tiled footpath back to our abode. Not a big fan of hot water baths in south India, but this one was heaven. Hate to admit it, but it does get a bit chilly in the morning with the wind, and the bath just relaxes your entire body. Add to that the sumptuous breakfast Ved uncle gave us, and we were re-energised to go. Incidentally it turned out that Ved uncle had passed out of the same college I had , albeit 40 odd years back, quite a nice guy to talk to, and well, he did put us up for the night as well. The sweetened butter bread (yes, that’s exactly what it is!) from the Ashram that Ved uncle gets is, well, unlike any other I have tasted (he mentioned its specifically prepared in the Ashram bakery, not usually for sale).

The bus from Pondicherry to Chidamabram takes another about hour and a half, some 70 or so kilometers away, and we alighted at the Natraja Temple. Unfortunately, the temple was closed for the afternoon and the helpful people we met on the road (who were pleasantly surprised to meet some folks speaking Hindi) told us to visit it after 4 PM when it reopens. We chatted with them about Delhi weather for some time (Heh, the topic of weather always crops up in most of the conversations, doesn’t it?). Not wanting to waste time we headed to the local bus stand and after a wait of 20 minutes barded the crowded bus to Tharangambadi ( Tranquear is much easier to write, Henceforth…). The net mentioned it being 20 or so kilometers away, so the analysts did the math and decided to be back in time to visit the temple and board a bus back to Chennai (The best laid plans, eh!!!!!!) Not sure if the bus took a longer route or we checked wrong, it turned out to be a journey of more than thrice our estimate (I still don’t do stock picking!!!). So here we were gesturing to the conductor to let us know if we had reached and he would gesture back with his hands as well (censored). Finally we did alight at the small town that the Danes were residing in long back, and made our way through to the 1.5 kilometers to the fort on the beach. On the way you will see a distinct imprint of the Danish settlement left behind, with the Zion Churches, the structure of the buildings, and the shop named ‘Danish bakery’!

Alas, the fort museum was closed, probably for renovation, or due to Christmas holiday. Not to be deterred by this, we, lead by V who seems to be always high on this drug called life (can’t remember which movie or novel to attribute this line to, so please excuse the plagiarism), headed for the beach. And here we soaked our weary feet in the nice cold water, sitting on the brick remains of a town devastated by the Tsunami that had hit in 2004.

Some of the brick structures are quite visible in front of the fort in the water, and further down the shore is the temple that was heavily destroyed by the waves then. They call it the beach with the singing waves…not sure why, though the waves keep on clashing heavily against the remaining brick foundations, unable to push back the human spirit. Walked out onto the rocky jetty in front of the now being renovated temple, and the wind here is something to behold as well. Would’ve loved to eat at the ‘Bungalow on the beach’ next to the fort, had read so much about it, but we were far away from home and the working class does need to register itself in the office every Monday, so we hiked back to the bus stand leaving the tranquil green waters behind.

Some hurriedly eaten idli, dosas (!) at some small place, another excruciatingly long bus ride back, was finally back to home sweet home. Maybe next time a bit more research would help, but I guess I prefer the unknown more, what the hell.

DC meanderings -2

The second day in DC and I was out. Went out to see Jon Stewart at ‘The rally to restore sanity’ at the National Mall in DC. The grounds stretch from the Capitol to way back to almost the Washington Memorial, and the crowds were packed completely. They had blocked off the side roads from traffic and people were everywhere, even on lampposts, to get a better view. The only reason that I was there was to see Jon Stewart in person; after having seen his performances on the Daily show for so long, I was a big fan now. In the end, I ended up being content with seeing him on the big screen only, as I waded for half an hour through the sea of people over there, and still was only halfway to the front. But nevertheless, it was a good experience, coming out and seeing this huge crowd, all waving creative signs on this beautiful sunny afternoon, and hearing Stewart and Colbert speak, with a few other artists'  performances thrown in. The Smithsonian Castle and the lush green patch in the middle of the Mall (which I obviously got to see some other day, albeit only what wasn’t trampled by the crowd on the day of the rally) is a nice place to spend a leisurely walk.

It was almost like a woodstock like atmosphere, well okay, maybe not that wild, but still people were out in huge numbers and enjoying themselves. Some of them even had blankets spread out and were simply looking for a tan on the nice afternoon. The cops must've had a tough time keeping all of this in order, and a lot of them had their bikes parked on the connecting side roads to maintain the flow of traffic.

                          
  The office building is smack 3 blocks from the White house, so yours truly decided one evening decided to see if mr. Obama would be available. Surprisingly he wasn’t, so just took a few snaps in front of his house and moved on. It was a bit surprising to see that people were allowed to get so close to the building with so few cops patrolling the place, or they were there but in plainclothes. There were plenty of foreigners having their snaps taken in front of the building, posing around, humph, tourists!

                           

Week 2, and I got roam around a bit more before the winter really settled in. The DC zoo came highly recommended by a few guys and the zoo it was then. A good day once more, bright sunshine allowed me to roam around in a just a thin pullover all over the zoo premises. The attraction, at least for me, wasn’t just few of the animal species I had never seen, but also the brightly colored fauna.

It was almost magical to see green leaves interspersed with a very generous dose of yellow, orange and red all around; guess it’d have been even more amazing to look at in the spring. The first animal species that graced us with its presence was a cheetah.

Let me tell you, it was damn hard to get a decent shot of the gentle beast, it was doing its morning walk, (well it was 10 in the morning but I guess the cookoo clock didn’t work today), and the grass was easily 2 feet tall all around, so I was running around from corner to post chasing the four legged speedster. Guess they don't call it the fastest animal around for nothing! The gazelles in the next enclosure were much more hospitable, or lazy, whatever, as they sat there the entire time getting a nice tan.

I was quite lucky that I reached the Panda area at feeding time. When I reached there, the camera shy couple were way at the back of the enclosure and hidden by the trees. Luckily a zoo employee came out soon enough and called out to the pandas, and tossed them their breakfast. She told me it was ice, mixed with lots of chunks of fruits, and the big fluffy animals enjoyed the meal, sitting on their butts licking the iced dessert/main course. I stood there for 10 minutes admiring the cute animal that I had only seen on television before and its enormous size.

Next up was the small mammal building, and I cannot remember all the names of the monkeys, meerkats and other small creatures, but it was really great to see many different species. The orange furry monkey (That's at least what i call it) was all at attention perched nicely on its bark. Its a bit sad to see them caged up away from their natural habitat, for the pleasure of the beast called human, but maybe it is us who are trapped in a cage, this unending cycle called life or death....but i digress, that's a topic for a much more detailed discussion , and probably one which would require all the parties to have a few shots of hard liquor in them to enjoy.

 The amphibian lane included some monitor lizards as well, and it seemed the Iguana was a bit short on manners as it stuck its tongue out to everyone who passed by, dunno if it thinks it’s the lucky one inside the glass cage or whether we are. But it certainly does need to change its acne cream, the protrusions on its face might not be too good when it comes to talking to ladies, unless the opposite ender also has the same problem, in which case i guess its fine.

The king of the jungle really was living life kingsize, with a really big enclosure for him, and 3 lionesses in the same enclosure, well here’s one guy who likes to play the crowd, or the pride in this case. And as if he knew how good a life he had, he was striking a brilliant pose for the shutterbugs, just sitting in a majestic pose under the trees, while the lionesses roamed around on the lower level. 

The aquarium section was also quite something, with piranhas, stingrays, octopuses, color changing jellyfish and what not; this one seemed to be a smart one, or a really dumb one, depending on whether that was a enlarged brain or a temporary bump on its head.

The stingray in fact did look cool up close, always wondered how effortlessly the creature is able to glide in water, so easily floating through.

One of the really exquisite things that they’ve done here is that they’ve also built up inside a big glass enclosure, an ecosystem resembling almost a rainforest, and there are a lot of plant species that you wouldn’t normally get to see in the climate outside, with vanes rising high, pitcher shaped stems on trees and bright flowers all taking you to a completely different place from the one that you are used to.

The last place that I visited was the snake area. Now they had a nice variety here as well, the vipers with the horns on their heads, or was that the adders, well one of them. And there was the rattler, and the rattle was in fact quite audible even through the glass. The tree green boa was happily stationery in a zenlike position and presented quite a harmless picture, guess that’s how the dinner feels as well.

There were the usual pythons ad boa constrictors, which were close to 20 feet in length, and a couple of snakes that were also in the process of shedding their skin. Got to see the giant snapping turtles, as well as the Galapogas tortoises, the latter as big as an 8 year old’s toy car.  I did not even realize that I had spent close to 7 hours here as I was heading out, and as luck would have it, I chanced upon the Emu enclosure as well. The shy bird was about 30 feet away behind some bushes, and I was thinking of leaving, but just lingered for a few more moments, and the gracious host stepped out and posed quite comfortably right next to me at the fence. I obliged by taking a couple of snaps, thanked the magnanimous gesture and finally called it a tiring, satisfied day.