A trip to Pondicherry, Chidambaram and Mahabalipuram

I barely got 24 hours to prepare myself for a trip down south and normally I like to be mentally ready, not that I am going to battle. So leave from work, adjustments at home and there I was flying to Chennai with my husband early in the morning on 24th March, 2011. Landed and then drove down NH 45 to Pondicherry which took about three hours and to our hotel Seabay GRT Grand, a comfortable place. I tucked in to my fill at the buffet for lunch and had a good sleep. In the evening, went for a walk on the promenade by the sea. This road is also known as the Beach road. In fact, this is one of the main attractions of Pondicherry or Puducherry, though the former is very much in use. Perpendicular and parallel roads lead from the Beach road into the city and these are mostly the original French areas with 19th century buildings, each one better then the other. The French names are still retained and you have Dumas street, Surcouf street, Bussy street, Francois Martin street, Saint Martin street and Compagnie street, to name a few. But it is worthwhile to walk these streets if you like heritage buildings. Some inportant buildings next to the sea include a lighthoude dated 1836, Our Lady of Angels Church facing which is the kneeling statue of Saint Joan of Arc, the French War memorial, a recent addition of Mahatma Gandhi's statue and Le Cafe. Getting back to my first day, well, it ended with a sumptuous dinner at the Promenade (this one is a good hotel) and India won the cricket match against Australia. Next morning, left for Chidambaram since Mr Ravishankar, our host thought to absolutely essential that we see this temple of the Nataraja signifying the Chidambaram Rahasya. Took us about an hour and a half to reach and we crossed Cuddalore which had been badly mauled by the tsumani (2004). On the way, I saw salt fields as well. This time our host was Mr Bhaskaran who kept us informed about each and every aspect of the place. On the way to the temple, I breakfasted on iddyappam for the first time and was really satisfied. On our return, I had the South Indian Thali and cleaned out most of the food except for the very spicy dishes. The payasam was a favourite. Also whenever I could, I had South Indian filter coffee.
Between the return to Puducherry and the South Indian thali I did what I enjoyed whole heartedly - exploring the city. First visit was to the Aurobindo Ashram and I visited the samadhis of Rishi Aurobindo and the Mother. The place was crowded but there are peace all around. I was disappointed though at not being able to explore the house where the great revolutionary lived. Apparently, it is not for public display which is strange. Next visit was the famous Ganesha temple where ganesha is known as Manakula Vinayaka. Thanks to Mr Bhaskaran's contacts, as in the Chidambaram temple, here too we were granted a smooth darshan of the idols. An elephant greets worshippers here and blesses them. Next I explored the streets taking in my fill of heritage buildings, most of them well maintained.
In the afternoon, we left for Mahabalipuram and the Shore temple by the East Coast road and had a lot to capture on camera. Returned tired and happy, dined, caught some sleep and early the next morning were on the way to Chennai airport sleeping most of the way. Caught the flight and were back to the Capital in no time.

Water Issues

Attended a workshop called by the US Embassy on Water Issues in India: Opportunities and Challenges. Various well known water experts like Ashok Jaitly, Himanshu Thakkar, Kapil Narula, Sanjay Pahuja, Renu Gera, Amit Kanodia, AK Bajaj, Anupam Mishra, Amit Bose,Deepak Saxena and many others spoke their minds. Well, one thing is pretty clear - the Water Crisis is here. So what are we doing about it?? Why does the Govt. not pass a law making it mandatory to have water harvesting systems in all housing societies, independent homes, office buildings, etc. Also age old water storage structures as old as 500 years and more in Rajasthan are even today providing pure drinking water to the desert state. Shouldn't we follow these examples rather than build water tanks that crumble in no time or fix tubewells that are always bone dry?
Water management is the key area to be focussed on and I hope we are not too late.