Day 1 at Auroville

I landed at Pondicherry afternoon of 10th. 

First surprise was even before landing....when I looked up from my book and out the window,  to find our flight over water. I was puzzled.  It's only when I saw ships and boats that I was certain we were indeed flying over the sea.

The runway is such that you come in for landing over the sea. Cute landing, and even cuter airport. 

Most folks don't even know that Pondicherry has an airport. I met many a folk who'd travelled to Chennai and then taken a cab, presuming there's no airport.  And landing there I realized their presumption was pretty valid. Why?

Because chatting with Kalaimani, my cab driver, I figured it's yet a limited kind of airport. It has flights only from Hyderabad and Bangalore, and more surprising is that it has daily flights only from Hyd. (Bangalore has only twice a week). 

Felt uniquely privileged :)

Auroville is about a half hour drive from the airport. You are on this wide pretty road for about 10 kms and then you suddenly come upon this sign to Auroville, that points to a mud road that branches off to the right. It has a little checkpost of it's own, where I was stopped. They needed the guesthouse to confirm to allow me in. 

Seemed like you're allowed into the commune only if you are staying there, and they do not welcome 'just visitors'. Guess that is one core factor to retaining the quiet and calm of the place.

Once I reached the guest house I wasn't sure what to do next. It's like when folks back home asked what I was going to do there, I'd said "there's nothing really to see at Auroville, it's about experiencing their way of life". I was there, and clueless where to start.

I saw no people, heard no noise, just the trees and birds for company. Soon discovered that they had a free shuttle, so used that to go to the visitors center, which is the touristy spot, open to public kinds.  

Spent rest of day at the visitors center, alternating between just getting familiar with anything on offer, chatting up with some folks, and chilling over cold coffee at this cute cafe, aptly called 'dreamers cafe'. Was a few hours of just absorption.

Some pictures from the day:

When I looked out into the sea

Landing over the coast

The airport....that's the whole of it

On the way to Auroville

At the visitors center

The Auroville charter.....the four large tablets are in four different languages.

It reads like this:

1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
3. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.

Explored some more:

Coralie from Belgium.  She along with some friends run this recycling store. She was sweet, and this became my first longish chat with an 'Aurovillian'.

That's Radhika under the hat, another solo traveller friend I made in Auroville

The Dreamer's Cafe, where I chilled over cold coffee and fries

From the cafe where I had lunch, was so quaint to see those women chilling under the tree

Me with my jain sattvic lunch

I had a tough time getting back to the guest house, (the free shuttle is not always available see). It's only after this that I got the brilliant idea of hiring an electric bike for rest of trip........and it was a mini adventure. I initially fumbled and almost fell, as an electric bike is so damn silent that you don't even realize when it's on and when not, and added to the fact, I was riding a two wheeler after twenty plus years. In fact that guy made me do a couple rounds before assuring himself that I could manage :) 

Having that bike just changed everything......it gave me access.