Pondicherry trip

It was friday evening.. some of us were gearing up for a weekend trip. Its been a week since we finalized on pondicherry. Everything was planned to avoid last-minute rush.. however it dint make much of a difference to me! 4.30 in the evening, i was busy stuffing everything into my bag.. trying to recollect things when my phone buzzed forcing me to leave.

We started our journey at around 6. Being unsure about the place where we booked our guest room, missing the route was expected. At around 3 in the morning we were busy searching for the place! First of all none of us knew tamil except manju... to second it, all sign boards were in tamil.. Damn! luckily, we could find some people having a morning walk at that time in the night who helped us find the way!!(I assume they were humans since they responded properly and none seemed creepy)

Wait, I can go on and on about various things we did but this time i try to keep it short :) (though i finished two paragraphs already :P). This made me wonder what not to write. I pondered over my mind again and again and finally came up with some-kind-of solution...

"Whats special about pondicherry"

Dune beach

Is it the humid weather which magically transform your hairs into wires or is it the panoramic view of endless sea.. the auroville, where they worship humanity or the french colony.. is it the rendezvous,  french breakfast or CK's foodstaurant where we hogged like we never had food.. is it the swimming pool in the guest house or just friends chit-chatting!

Matrmandir in Auroville

Rock beach

Guess its not a solution but a probe, which had my hands full on which one to prioritize.. coz everytime i think of it, im mazed.. Its tough to point out one thing and say "hey look this is wonderful in pondicherry"..  its the nice blend of everything, which makes it an amazing place. There is auroville, which is so very peaceful and calm and then, there is rock beach where the sea roars.. there is paradise beach which is heavenly as well as Dune beach which is secluded and wonderful. There is french colony where you get to see name plates you can never understand and nehru street where you can shop to ur contentment! But wherever you go, you loose yourself to it!

Paradise island

P.S : To all the veggies out there planning for pondicherry trip, dont miss CK's foodstaurant in nehru street(guess so). Food is wonderful there..(or probably we were damn hungry!) Ofcourse you might have heard about french breakfast anyway!

RAM v/s ROM

These days almost every saturday mornings are dedicated to teaching. I, along with few more volunteers visit Corporation Girls High School to teach computers. Teaching them is so much fun and educating. We learn a lot in the process of teaching and answering their queries.

After all these days of teaching, I have sensed one thing for sure -- you can neither beat their enthu nor voice. I shout at top of my voice yet find it difficult to compete them :P

I was teaching them basics of computer.. various parts of computers and its usage.. At some point,  topic was diverted towards RAM and ROM. As a dutiful teacher, I wrote it on the board and asked whether they knew the difference between them. I was thrilled to see one promt hand raising.. I signalled her to answer and this is what she had to say about it --

"Miss.. RAM alli A ide ROM alli O ide" (RAM has A and ROM has O in it)

I was spellbound!

Dream Explore Discover

"Dream is the hope of tomorrow.."

We have hundreds and thousands of dreams but do we pursue all of them? why do we leave some of them? why do we struggle for some of them? why do we want to achieve some, even though we are very much aware of the rough road ahead?....

A group of individuals had a passion of providing education to the poor and underprivileged children.. they knew it was not an easy task.. unfazed they set up a unique trust.. "Ananya" which has completed 11 years.. yet still fresh.. still dedicated!

 

We reached there at around 2 in the afternoon.. After roaming around the campus i found myself engrossed in the environment created for kids. There is nothing formal.. no formal syllabus.. no sky high buildings.. its as simple as learning in nature! I was awestruck the moment i saw the classrooms there.. teachers were in no hurry to complete one class and flee to another.. kids need not worry about various subjects.. no exam fever.. no mid-term tension..(cool huh?) still there was a kind of learning process! everyone were so relaxed.. relishing every moment !

Kids are allowed to explore things around them which improves their ability to analyze.. inquire.. learn... and thats the main objective of ASK (Ananya Sikshana Kendra). Their thirst to learn more has prompted the trust to have science and computer labs for them to research. No competition, No discrimination, clear conscience among kids shows the best efforts of the volunteers.

They are free to choose their own career and develop skills accordingly.. They have the number they like or the day they prefer, for their birth day. A comfy environment is all they need and its provided in Ananya.

We couldnt find much time to interact with the kids as we had our offices to flee to! but those few hours spent there was worth it and looking forward to meet them soon!