Quick thrills @ AuroVille.

We landed in Pondicherry on the morning of the 14th August. After a 20mins auto drive and 200Rs poorer we landed in Samarpan Beach house on ERC road at Auroville, right beside Repos beach. The guest house is not your regular Taj fare. Since the Italian owners were not in town, the caretakers were lazy, immovable and I thought sometimes a bit unusually unresponsive. But the guest house itself was very nicely located just beside the sea and the lounge of the guest house had a divine view with the gentle breeze of the sea fanning us continuously in an otherwise hot weather. The studio we stayed in was decorated with inexpensive but tasteful adornments and it did carry a lot of charm.

After a quick shower and 3 hours of waiting (courtesy lazy staffs again) we came to Repos / Auro beach only to be hugely disappointed by the beach. Unclean, unkept, lack of space to sit, no shady spot compounded by the gawking Indian tourist and the even more gawking local fishermen. We soon realised that a nice relaxing swim was not possible. So we counted our loses and went back to the guest house. Keeping in mind the objective of relaxation we had decided for this trip, we stayed & enjoyed the indoors thereafter.

The evening was spent in discovering pottery shops and french restaurant around Auroville. The next day we hired a bike (very lucky to found one though) and roamed around Auroville, starting from Matri mandir to the interiors .The houses in Auroville looked like the handiwork of some quirky & imaginative architects. They were very strange yet so appealing. The last evening which was also the Independence day was spent 3 hours at a pub in Pondicherry & watching fireworks in R.K Beach as a part of the celebrations.

It was a short & delightful trip.

One disgustingly crazy observation: We saw a boy casually pull down his pants and do his shitty business right at the edge of the sea. Done with his business, he simply waited for the waves to come and clean him naturally. No tissues nor "louta" required. Isn't that the heights of laziness?

View from Samarpan guest house