Road Trip to Pondi!

 The 2^nd term is almost over and I’ve completed 3 months here already... And so much has happened in that time...

Most of the time I feel as though whatever is taught just rushes by my brain but when I look back, I realize that there are a lot of things I have learnt – I know at least the fundamentals of subjects I had never read or even thought about before, Economic Times and Business Standard actually make sense to me now... and that, alone, is a biiig achievement in my humble opinion!

But well, the purpose of this post is not to focus on that... This is about my road trip to Pondicherry – My first ever proper road trip on a bike!

So the plan was rather impromptu, with 6 sleep-deprived MBA students pouncing at the 2 day holiday – Chaubey, Saurav, Tarun, Namita, Sonali and me (names have been changed to protect privacy! ;)

We were supposed to leave at 10 am but ended up leaving the campus at 12 pm... Tarun and I were on a Bullet (yes, my first time on a Bullet) and it was awesome! ECR is a beautiful road – surrounded by lush greenery... sometimes the trees form a kind of natural canopy over the road and then suddenly they are gone and you’re surrounded by water on both sides... beautiful wide rivers that extend as far as you can see in either direction... very soothing to the eyes and mind...

We had covered about 50 kms when I suddenly felt like singing, so I warned Tarun and then burst loudly into “O Humdum” from Saathiya... not to be left behind, Tarun joined and I am pretty glad no one was around to hear us – we were both pathetically out of tune, with the Bullet joining in with its constant droning.

And so it was that we reached Pondicherry – surprisingly calm and untouched. Not crowded at all! I had expected something similar to Goa, but this place is really quiet and peaceful... We found a decent place to eat and I tasted gin for the first time. It smells nice! We enjoyed French cuisine – we were unable to pronounce most of the names, though!

And then we moved to the beach. The rocks, the sand and waves make for a very picturesque view! We roamed about on the bike, searching for Paradise Beach but couldn’t get there... so we went to this place which was empty and we had a great time there. The water is saltier (yes, it really is) than the sea water at Mahabs and Goa. There were some crabs and other sea creatures on the beach... some of them were small, round and had thorns all over their body and I don’t quite know what they were...

We were at the beach for a long time – Saurav was very bent on “facing the waves” and we almost drowned in the attempt, but yes, in retrospect, that was fun too! Namita was suddenly possessed by the ghost of a mad horse, it seemed - she insisted on galloping up and down the shore. Chaubey was hesitant at first, but once his change of clothes arrived, umm well, there was no stopping him... we were sitting, standing, prancing about, jumping, falling and behaving likr complete nincompoops, basically!
Sand entered our eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth but that didn’t seem to make a difference (until later, of course).

Finally, as it began to grow darker, we decided to head out to eat... and that was when we got lost. We were roaming about for a good 45 minutes before we found each other again – back at the same place we’d had lunch at. Dinner was hurried because we had to reach college as soon as we could.

The ride back was better, actually. As Alfred Noyes would have said:

 “The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight looping the purple moor”

And three bikes came riding... it was very unforgettable... :)

We reached college around 12 midnight and only when we got down did we realize how badly we were aching all over! And the only thing we could think of was sleep... which came without any effort... It was a wonderful day and I look forward to going back to Pondi soon... for a longer duration this time!