The pain of losing a loved one is immense. I ve learn t this over the years of 'cinema experience'. Frivolous it may sound, it is true.

The Second World War has interested me greatly. The Katyn Massacare especially. 22,000 humans were mutilated. Their bodies lay on the forest grounds of Katyn. Imagine the plight of the families that were expecting their POW husbands, fathers, sons. Put yourself in the shoes of that wife who receives news from her husbands best friend that her husband is dead. That husband, for whom she has been waiting for the last five years. Imagine the state of the mother who has lost both her husband and her son at the same time. It was a dirty war. The dirtiest of all.

The numbers are staggering. Those who died at Katyn included an admiral, two generals, 24 colonels, 79 lieutenant colonels, 258 majors, 654 captains, 17 naval captains, 3,420 NCOs, seven chaplains, three landowners, a prince, 43 officials, 85 privates, and 131 refugees. Also among the dead were 20 university professors ; 300 physicians; several hundred lawyers, engineers, and teachers; and more than 100 writers and journalists as well as about 200 pilots. The list is endless.

The sad part is that these soldiers didnt lose their life fighting, they were executed. It was methodical. They were shot at the back of their skull so that the bullet came out through their forehead and sometimes through their noses.

It is sad.

I cant bear the pain, even now, to feel what she felt.

Time Passes.

Chilled Beer…Rickety Buses…. Sand…. Cigarettes….Food…. Kakke and Me

My train got delayed by three hours in Delhi, and a total of five hours by the time I reached Chennai. It took me another 40minutes to get a bus which was full of smelly people. I had no place to sit. Three malnutritioned boys gave me a tiny amount of seat on which I could only fit one cheek of my right bum. It further took me three and a half hours to reach my destination. Alas, Puducherry.

I started my day with the first smoke of the morning and a good conversation with kakke. Nex t came hot coffee and some more conversation with some more cigarettes. Hunger was riding with me since eight o clock last night. South Indian breakfast is recommended, its healthy and cheap. Softest of idlis and crisp vadas with piping hot genuine filter coffee made my morning.

Bread, mayo and chicken salamis’ is what one should eat while drinking beer on a beach. Kakke and me decided that we shall sit on the beach and drink beer in the afternoon scorching sun. The drive to the beach was a little long but it was worth it. I had never in my life seen such beautiful backwaters. To reach the beach we drove through a road which was covered with palm trees. Shacks on either side of the road gave me a kick which I had never experienced before.

The sand was burning hot and we were hopping like hot pancakes till we reached a place where we could cool our feet off. We met a couple of locals and opened the bottles after that. Even one beer in the sun gives a buzz and we were stupid enough to go into the ever fast receding east coast waters. The sandwiches’ tasted even better after the beer. Excellent conversation and the uniform sound of waves reaching the shore was the cherry on top for the afternoon.

After sleeping for four hours in the evening and a lame Punjabi party, we went to ‘Le Café’ and sat there by the shore for hours. Talking, smoking and drinking black coffee is fantastic in the night, especially when you can hear the water splashing on the rocks. Something was missing. It was incomplete. We were crazy enough to go back to our room and get the laptop. Its two o’ clock and this is end of the events of day one at Puducherry. Courtesy… ‘Le Café’.

The second day was as exciting as the previous one. Starting from traditional sappad which was spicy and mouth-watering at the same time to visiting Auroville is an opportunity of a lifetime. It’s a society in itself. People from forty different nations numbering to about two thousand have become Aurovillians. Its not based on any religion or god. Aurovillians have no property of themselves. There is no sense of possession or ownership, everything that an individual has is acquired by Auroville. These people work for Auroville in all sorts of manners and Auroville takes care of these people. I still haven’t been able to figure out how these people are so peaceful, especially staying in India. There is not even one police station which I could see on my way to Auroville. On the outside, it’s a Eutopian township.

They have two boutiques where one can find sandals and chappals made with women’s undergarments to erotic scented candles. T- Shirts and Kurtas are expensive but the fabric is soft. Then there is a leather section and a crockery section. Soft music playing in the background and quietness all around the boutique makes one peaceful.

Our next stop was the infamous Auro beach. I had heard that it was smelly and dirty. When we reached, it was dirty alright, but to our surprise, it wasn’t smelly. It was just like another beach but one could find more foreigners than locals. We sat there for about an hour or so and then decided to get authentic Italian pizzas which were better than any pizza made by Dominos or Pizza Hut.

The evening was the highlight of the day. Sitting in the balcony with pizza and conversation with cigarettes and vodka was too good to be true. It doesn’t get any better than this. Pity that I have to leave in another two days.

Saturday came and kakke had to go fly. I did what I do best. Sleep. I was famished even after eating a hundred grams of salami. So me and kakke and two of his friends went out to eat shitty lunch where we encountered four beautiful women, and nothing happened.

Evening time was binge time. The whole act of authentic Itallian Pizza, Rum, cigarettes and good conversation envisaged the evening. The balcony of his mansion is the highlight of every evening. One can sit there for hours and hours together. Pity this was my last night of awesomeness.

Going to ‘Le’ Café’ was a risk which we were ready to take. In search of women we set course to the beach side café. Pity it was closed. We didn’t give up. Thinking that we might find some in Café Coffee Day, our next stop was Ginger Hotel. Again we had to be happy with coffee and ‘The Hindu’. No regrets.

On my last day in Puducherry, there were only two things left to see. One was Aurobindo Ashram and the other was the Old Port. Being a Sunday, the Ashram was crowded like Sarojini Nagar, and I couldn’t see any tourists, all I could see was locals in one long line waiting to enter the Asharam. So we decided against standing.

Old Port was next in the agenda. It’s a beautiful ride from the city to the outskirts of Puducherry. It was the most picturesque place I had ever seen. We were standing on a concrete pathway which extended to a hundred meters into the sea. The perimeter of the port was surrounded with huge black rocks. Backwaters on the right and sea on the left with the light house, this was the place to be.

The evening went eventless as after dinner we went and sat at my favourite place. I boarded the bus around one o’clock and reached Chennai. From there I was waiting to reach home.

I’ve been to many places in India. But I haven’t seen a place like Puducherry.