Travel Diary | Day 5 : Day of the Music Festival

If you miss the previous posts or don’t understand anything mentioned in this post please check the previous post if you do have some more time to spend here 🙂

Pic of the day : Day 1 [07.10.2014]

Pic of the day : Day 2 [08.10.2014]

Pic of the day : Day 3 [09.10.2014]

Pic of the day : Day 4 [10.10.2014]

11.10.2014 [ Saturday ]

Today, my main agenda in the morning was to go back and find the answers I was seeking which I couldn’t find during the first meditation session.  So I was going again to Matri Mandir for another meditation session. I reached the entrance at 9 o clock in the morning as per my time slot.  Their punctuality is amazing. I was allowed to enter inside the Inner chamber at 9.30 sharp as per the appointment. I walked the spiral path again and went to the abode of tranquillity. All the people in the batch were allowed to sit there for half an hour. I sat there and tried to calm my mind. I tried to concentrate, on the light coming from the magical crystal ball. I tried to concentrate,  on my breathing! Nothing really worked 😀 I realised, it takes a lot of practice to quiet one’s mind instantly. Otherwise everyone would have been a true yogi!!

As the light flashed, signalling the end of the session, I walked out of the chamber, determined to make meditation a part of my life!! And I knew that was just another wish of mine which had got a life of a few days 😀

Its my 4th day of photographing this amazing place.

The great Banyan Tree

This Banyan tree marks the  Auroville’s geographical centre. You can see that the aerial roots have grown into trees!

The golden disc

This is one close view of the golden disc on display at the entrance to the Matri Mandir. The golden globe is covered with numerous similar golden discs.

And then I met this interesting person, who is from USA, who left everything, sold everything, living in Auroville and selflessly giving his services for the better functioning of this place.

Richard

After saying good bye to him, I got into a shuttle bus to Visitor’s centre. Got my super bike and I had to find a new and cheap accommodation for  2 days.  Yes, I have changed my plans and decided to stay here for some more days. So I checked with the Guest accommodation service in Visitor’s centre for a cheaper accommodation. They suggested me a dormitory which charged 250 per day, but it was almost 6 km away from Auroville city.

I bought one map of Auroville from the VC. In the map all the Guest houses are marked as ‘G’. So once again back to explorations. This time with a printed map! I was doing it for the first time. Google maps or any other digital maps are easy to navigate. But this was pretty challenging! Anyway I found out most of the nearby guest houses. They were either expensive or no single rooms were not available. So I decided to check out the dormitory they had mentioned before. Found out the dormitory in the map, and later spotted it in real! It was a nice place and I was sure that I couldn’t find anything cheaper than this. So I decided to stay there. I kept my things but there was no boxes or shelves to keep them locked. So I took my valuable stuffs in a bag and went back to Auroville.

Now the only thing left to do was to go and enjoy the music festival later in the night. So I started to roam aimlessly and finally decided to check internet. I went to the Solar Kitchen area,  and purchased a WiFi coupon. And I updated this blog and replied most of your comments . And then I met this guy.

The man who plays flute

I met this guy a couple of days ago and promised to visit him to see him playing the flute. So he was happy to see me keeping my promise. I spent some time there and then I headed to the auditorium where they had the music festival.

They had prepared a floral design to welcome all the people.

Floral carpet

I waited some time before they finally opened the auditorium.

Auroville Singing festival

They kick started the event with a drum performance! They were using real drums that are used to contain oil and stuffs like that. It was an awesome performance.

I felt like I was back in college. The atmosphere was so energetic. Maybe I should have taken a video but I only have still pictures from the event. So here goes Some pictures from the event.

A guitar performance

Running the show

dance to the beats

With Love from South Korea

Living life to the fullest

A colourful performance

It was a great night. I really enjoyed all the performance and had fallen  in love with this place more and more.

After the event was over, I had to return the bike to Gaurav, as he wanted his bike on Sunday mornings for his regular exercise. So I kept the bike at his place and started walking towards my new accommodation.

It was around 10 o clock at night. I checked if anyone would stop and give me a lift without asking! That was a crazy idea because no one stopped and I walked almost 2km 😀 Then I reached main road and got a lift till my new dorm. I found a street side shop that was open even at that time and luckily I didn’t have to sleep with an empty stomach.

There were no other person staying in that dormitory that night. So the entire place was for me. I did a bit of laundry and then I went to bed. I was tired because of all the cycling to find the accommodation. So it’s again time for a Goodnight! See you tomorrow