Day 10: Chennai to Pondicherry

Today, I woke up at around 6:30am and got freshened up.  Then, I started writing one more pending log. It was then, when I received a call from Rtn Babu ji, who asked me to get ready, as we were to go out for breakfast. I asked Deepak to get up and get ready. We were ready till he came. He sat with us for a while and told us that we were to attend some function in Chennai, which was organized by Rotary Club Chennai. I and Deepak, were bit disappointed then, as we had plans to reach Pondicherry early today and enjoy there. As it is a very beautiful city. But, anyways, Rtn Babu ji took us to a nearby hotel called hotel Accord. It had a buffet which included Bacon, sausages, Breads, fruits, juices, and many other delectable dishes which I simply couldn’t resist and hogged. After the Breakfast, we went to our room and packed our bags to depart. Rtn Babu ji had sent his man to direct us to the school, where this function was organized. We reached the school where the function was organized and started clicking pictures, as there were a lot of things and people to click pictures of. We both sat on a chair and started chatting, then came Rtn Babu ji and introduced us to the other Rotarians present there. After some time, the mayor of Chennai also came to he function and we got introduced to him also. Later, the function got started and the speeches were delivered in Tamil, which we both could not understand. They also  felicitated us by calling upon the stage and introduced us to all of  the people present there. When we came down, there was a girl of around 8 years of age, with chandan ka tikka on her forehead looking at us eagerly. We both smiled to her and she also did the same. We gave her and some of her friends the polio caps. After the function was over, we left for Puducherry.

While we were on the way to Puducherry, a traffic police personnel, interrogated me and  Deepak, as where are we from, what do we do etc. Also, he was not letting us go. Then, the person who had come to direct us to  the East Coast Road(ECR), came to us and told the Police man about us and helped let us go. We took the ECR to go to Puducherry. Believe me, it was smoother than the smoothest roads and one side with Bay of Bengal and the other side was covered by forests. You have to be there to experience the pleasure. We clicked some photos enroute to Puducherry. Enjoying the ride on the ECR, we reached Puducherry at around 3:45pm. There we sat in front of the church waiting for the man of the DG of the Dist. 2980. The man took us to a restaurant and we had lunch. Then we went to the office of DG. There we met, Rtn Shanmugan and other Rotarians. There were all busy with their preparations for the Dist. Conference. After some time, we  both went to the beach, the way of which was directed by Rtn Shanmugan ji. 

At the beach, we saw Gandhi memorial etc. There we met a young boy of around 14 years of age, selling toys at the beach. I happened to talk to him, and to surprise, he could speak hindi. He told me that people here hate hindi speaking people. It was a shocking thing, which he told me. Anyways, I received a call from Rtr Siva, who was to take care of us that evening. He came to us and we left the  beach. Then,  we went to some repair shop, as our bikes needed service. We got the bikes serviced and went to have dinner at some Bilal restaurant(owner is a Rotarian.). The name of the owner of bilal restaurant is Rtn Mohd. Nadeem. He was very happy to know that we had travelled all the way from Chandigarh to Puducherry. I had some normal discussions with him and then we left for our hostel, where we had to stay. It was some youth hostel. Siva had come to show us the way till the hostel. He left after some time and I lied on the bed, as I was very tired. I slept in no time.