Strictly speaking it was not a weekend trip since I went to Pondicherry only on Sunday evening. I was planning for Pondicherry trip for quite some time now, to collect my medal and degree certificates. I couldnt plan the trip for long time due to personal reasons. I need to be there at Pondy on a working day to collect the certificate and for me to be there on a working day means, I have to take 2 days leave from my office, which I didnt want to. But last weekend I got the oppurtunity when Monday was a holiday for my office. So I decided to go from here on Sunday afternoon and booked ticket for Mangalore-Chennai train upto Salem. The train started from Mangalore at 4.00 pm Sunday and reached Salem by 2.45 am Monday morning. Next I had to catch a bus to Pondy. When I came out of the station, I was surprised to see city busses even at this time (2.45 am) and this one of the things I like about Tamilnadu. I took the bus to the main bus station and got a bus to Pondy.

I reached Pondy by 8.30 am and checked into a hotel. I quickly freshed up and had my breakfast. I always wanted  to visit the famous Manakular Vinayakar Temple. This is one of the Ancient temples in Pondicherry. Since the city busses are less in Pondicherry, I decided to take a share auto. Share auto is typically a bigger sized auto with more capacity and seen in some cities of India. In Pondicherry, a share auto carries around 15 people. Although the seating capacity is around 10, the rest of the people have to stand inside with their head bend down as the roof is very low. I was one of passengers who travelled standing and it was not the first time I was travelling standing. After 10 min, I reached the temple and I should say it was a back paining experience.
After visiting the temple, I took the city bus to Kalapet, the place where Pondicherry University is located. I reached University by 10.30 am. Although I had visited University many times during my 2 years stay in Pondicherry, I felt like a stranger in the vast campus. I had to even ask for the location of administrative building
Finally I reached the main building where I had to collect the certificate. I collected both the certificate and the medal and proceeded back to main road. I passed through the main gate of Pondicherry Engineering College, known as PEC where I completed my M.Tech. Lot of old memories rushed through my mind.

I reached back to my room by around 12.30 pm . I had a tamil style lunch and packed up. My return train to Mangalore was at 9.45 pm from Salem.  I started my return journey by around 1.30 pm and reached Salem by 8.00pm. After dinner I boarded the train back to Mangalore where I reached by 9.00 am Tuesday morning.

It was a wonderfull trip to refresh good old memories although it was a very short one.

Technorati tags: Pondicherry, ManakularTemple

Share & Enjoy