A trip to Pondicherry-Auroville unforgettable birthday gift

Day 1

I always want my birthday to be special. As my friends have ran out of ideas in giving me surprises and making it special I decided to make it special by myself. So I landed up in Pondicherry. Without any planning as usual.

I knew few places to visit suggested by friends.

But had not planned anything- where to go, where to stay, how to go etc.

When I got down the bus it was 5.30 in the morning.

I got freshen up from the public toilet and sipped a tea in the local tea shop.

By the help of my google map figured out bike rental shops and called few of them. None of them were open. Thought of walking till there so that they will be open by then.

My main tension was I didn't had my licence.

Thank god the rental owner only took my identity proof and rented out a TVS. It was a funny ride from town to Auroville that morning.

My bag on the front and everytime the TVS stops, you had to get down, take out the bag and kick start it, put the bag back and sit quickly to ride.

I rode 11 kms to reach Auroville. As I hadn't figured out my stay I was just wandering. And most of the guest houses only offer minimum 3 days stay. My plan was only for a day.

On the way I found an interesting cafe "Bread and Chocolate" and thought of giving a stop. I ordered french pressed coffee with lots of expectation. But it turned out to be disaster. I could not enjoy a single sip of it.

It was almost noon when I ended up in enquiry centre after roaming around a lot for my stay. I almost had decided to stay in bustand for the night.

Finally got one guest house for 650/- per night which is totally inside the forest. I missed the way several times before reaching there. And no network, not a single human being.

It was a cute guest house with Ganesh Bekary beside it and with lots of flowers and banana trees.

I took bath and started my TVS ride.

By the end of the day I had visited several cafes and tasted varieties of French and Italian food.

Next day was my birthday. I wore my birthday dress and headed back to town.

As in the previous day I was so scared of not having licence. Whenever I saw a police I used to change the route. As a result, I had to take rounds and rounds to reach my destination and had to do the process of TVS to start it infinite number of times.

I went to art cafe to have my breakfast. Sat alone watching others and enjoyed every bit of my breakfast. Roamed in White town. Visited light house. Had Salem biriyani. Did everything what was there in my list.

The last thing was sangria. I searched for the particular bar suggested by my friend and went.

But Max and his boys denied serving it as it was dry day. They almost had convinced to give it to me in a coffee mug. But they were so scared and finally refused it. I couldn't hold my tears. I told Max that it's my birthday. He got so moved by my tears and sat with me for rest of my time in the bar giving me a warm company. As my bus was at 10.30 p.m. I asked him whether I can stay till then. He happily agreed and offered me cigarettes to compensate sangria.

I made two friends there who were from Bangalore. We four chilled for a while and they offered me a lift to bustand. There just before I sat in the bus, they got to know that it's my birthday. One among them ran and bought two chocolates for me. That was the best gift for my birthday from newly made friend.

I headed back to Bangalore with so much warmth and love from the strangers I met.