Pondicherry

Yesterday I made my way from Chennai to Pondicherry. Before leaving my accomodation in Chennai, I asked one of the men at the desk how to get to the main bus stand. He said that a bus was leaving directly for Pondy from the hotel. Since the price was 50 rupees less than the cost to take a cab to the bus stand, I said ok. Little did I know that I got tricked into a bus tour to Pondy. I believe this was a blessing in disguise because I met wonderful Indians on this bus tour. There were also two incredibly annoying American males and a girlfriend (not sure where she was from). I stayed away from them.

On the bus, I sat next to Paleshwar. He's a postal worker from Chattisgar and in Southern India for holiday. His two friends were also on the tour. They had rhyming names, but I don't remember them. Also on the bus were a few Indian families.

On the way to Pondy, we had a rest stop at a snack stand. A girl on the bus gave me a mint. I offered her a cookie from my snack stash, but she was shy and said no. After some prodding from her mom, she took my cookie. I also offered her some yummy Japanese candy, but she said no.

The first stop on the tour was Auroville. As we were walking around Auroville, the girl who gave me the mint asked me in English what my name was. After telling her my name she said, "Good name." I asked her, "Tumhara nam?" Your name? Ayusha. Her cousin also asked me a few questions. And before long, we were friends. When we got to a picture taking sight, Ayusha called me to be included in the family picture. "Come," she said. They didn't ask the annoying Americans. Only for a group shop at the end.

I noticed the grandmother sitting by herself during picture taking time, so I asked, "Dadiji thik hai?" Is grandmaji ok? After that, I was so golden with the families. On the way back to the bus they were asking me how long I was in India for, where I came from, what I was doing, what I did in the States. The grandma gave me a little hug and said I was sweet and that I reminded her of one of her granddaughters. They were very kind to me with my barely Hindi, my broken Hindi.

So by the end of the day, I had the contact information for two families, one living in Delhi and the other in Kanpur near Lucknow. And when it came time for me to leave and jump into a rickshaw to find a place to stay in Pondy, they crowded around to say their goodbyes, especially the kids. One of the fathers was sweet. He protectively asked the rickshaw driver how much and told him where to take me. Then he told me how much it would cost.

Finding a place to stay in Pondy was a little tricky. Guesthouse after guesthouse was full. We then pulled up to a guesthouse that I intentionally did not call beforehand because the price listed in my guidebooks was out of my budget. All out of options, I asked if they had any rooms available. I was in luck. When I asked how much, I was in even more luck. 100 rupees each night. That's six times less than what was listed in my guidebook. And here's the real blessing: it's right on the beach of the Bay of Bengal AND it's clean.