Amazing Race: Pondicherry

For the first week of our placements, the EWB South Asia vollies and staff from the partner organisations gathered together in Chennai and then headed down to Auroville (an intentional community in Tamil Nadu- checkout Wikipedia because it’s too hard to explain- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auroville) for an intense week of work... hehehe, maybe with a bit of fun as well! For a comprehensive photo journal, checkout ‘Blinky’s South Asia Adventures’ on my Facebook page.

I think the highlight of the week was the ‘Race Around Pondy’ activity, where we split into groups of three or four and were given a list of tasks to achieve in nearby Pondicheery- including getting there and back- which proved to be the most difficult part of the whole exercise! We meditated at the Ashram, visited Lakshmi (alas, we couldn’t get in) and bartered with street vendors for the ingredients for the evening’s feast. All in all, not too bad (apart from the heat)- I felt safe and not overwhelmed by the whole experience, and had a great time helping R.P. and Bishnu, who I will be working with at NEWAH, buy presents for their wives. But soon it was time to get back to Verite Guest House...

We walked around for half an hour trying to get a taxi, and eventually ended up at the tourism office, who told us to go back to where we’d spent the last half hour walking from. We politely (perhaps) asked them to call us a taxi instead, and got a little ripped off, but were desperate by this stage to get home, and willing to pay the extra 100 Rupees (about AUD$2, split 4 ways, seems a bit trivial when converted...). We shouldn’t have.

I realised on the ride back that I have never before feared for my life- not when we were hiding from the bull elephants behind a Botswanian anthill, or when I slipped whilst absailing in a quarry- but riding in an Indian taxi with this particular driver made me so anxious I was on the verge of passing out or vomiting (luckily I had found a clean(ish) toilet before leaving Pondicherry or I may have wet myself too :P). It was a bit like being in a video game- because who in real life would be stupid enough to overtake a bus when there was a second bus coming at you head on?

The taxi ride of death eventually ended and I fell out of the taxi onto firm ground. At that stage, someone told me that I could have asked the driver not to pull out into oncoming traffic and it might have worked- I have my doubts, and he wouldn’t have heard me over the honking anyway.

My sincerest apologies to those people people in Australia who have noticed me closing my eyes when they’re driving- I would gladly accept your driving now (read: Luke and Kelsi :P).

Blinky asked me to cover his eyes during the taxi ride of death