Retreat to Kolkata

After month long stay at Auroville I realized that it is not the place of my Karmabhumi.
We decided to move on.

Call of Pondicherry beach was alluring. We decided to spend a couple of days at Pondicherry.

This was also to correct our partiality towards Auroville. I had spent lot of time for Auroville
but never interacted earlier with Shri Aurobindo Society.  My stay at Pondicherry was to correct
 that anomaly. Best way to interact I found is to stay at "The Retreat" guest house. This place is at
 probably the best location in Pondicherry. Bang on the beach, just beside Secretariat. Backside of
 the guest house opens toward Roman Roller library. Most of the important place is within 5 min
of walk from there. SAS head-quarter is also in the same building.

All the rooms in Retreat faces sea, one just needs to peep out for a fabulous sunrise picture.

Puducherry to Kolkata is 1830 Km. Google claims it to be a 30 Hrs drive, but I decided to
keep the drive to approx 400 Km/day.  Before the return we also wanted to spend a day
at Golden Sand beach of Mahabalipuram. Bay of Bengal is just great at Mahabalipuram.
One could easily imagine why it used to be the favorite spot for the sea traders.

There is a hotel just beside the shore temple, we decided to stay there.
The reason was mainly good access to beach.

Most tourist spots and main market is also quite near to shore temple

Mahabalipuram sea is also good for surfing. Wanted to explore if this will suit my current
 fitness level. After watching the process I gave up the thought of trying it.

This beautiful beach is littered with garbage. The experience would have been
pleasant if someone bothered to clean the beach.

Aug 28th is my son's birthday. He is in Chennai. We planned to celebrate the day with him.

My friends from BHU, Venkat and Ranga paid us a visit at Hotel.
Venkat had a visit from prospective international customer and 
Ranga is trying to create some extra hours to supply massive orders 
that is in his hand. It was very nice of them to make time 
from their busy schedule for us.

Greta's classmate Shampa and our ex-neighbour Madhumita also dropped in for a quick chat.

Mohan is my classmate from BHU. He was out of station on previous days. Joined us in breakfast before we left Chennai.

Our first stop was at Vijaywada. Road was good but it was a long drive.

We discovered a nice restaurant at Rajahmundry - Mee Food Magic.
Good food, Amazing service - the place is being setup, ambiance was not so nice
but the behavior was like a good friend or close relative.
Loved having the food there.

Next stop was at Vizag. Hotel was very near to port.

A Chinese bulker slowly making its entry.
God knows when we shall have more container carriers
instead of these bulkers. 

OTDC Kalinga gives a back to home feeling. The place is just 5 hrs drive from Kolkata.