Raja Hindustani

It was year 2005. We continued to enjoy the same carefree hostel life style but only after our office hours. One day my school friend Karuna called me. Well, it is always a treat to hear from old friends but the situation was more than just a delight. Karuna was doing his MBA that time and was about to come to Bangalore for his internship. It was just cool and Karuna stayed with us for almost a couple of months. I was staying with few of my college friends in an apartment and everyone had a great time with Karuna. 

Time had simply flown by and Karuna’s internship was over. He had to return to his college and was about to join work in a month’s time. We planned for a short weekend trip and decided to visit Pondicherry. Well, Pondicherry is a popular tourist destination in South India. Apart from the mesmerizing beaches the city has many colonial buildings, churches, temples, and statues which, combined with the systematic town planning and planned French style avenues, still preserve much of the colonial ambiance. As my friends had different plan so finally It was only me and Karuna for the adventure. We booked our bus tickets. Pondicherry is at a distance of around 350 km from Bangalore and it usually takes five to six hours by bus. 

We reached Pondicherry early morning. As expected we immediately glued to our beds in our hotel room. We woke up late and had some heavy breakfast. It was our first trip to the beautiful Indian French town and we didn’t know much about it. Our hotel was pretty close to a beach,  but there were rocks and only rocks all over the place. The beach looked beautiful but it was pretty dangerous as well, definitely not the kind of beach I was expecting. I just couldn’t imagine Bipasha Basu romancing with John Abraham on that rocky beach. Well, the only thing I knew about Pondicherry that time was that the entire Jism movie was shot there. I and Karuna thought to hire a taxi to explore some exotic beaches, but the taxi charges disappointed us instantly. We tried out luck here and there and then suddenly an Auto driver approached us. He sounded quite friendly and promised to take us to all the well know places in Pondicherry at a very reasonable price. 

'So, what's your name?' I asked.

'My name is Raja, but you can call me Raja Hindustani'

Raja Hindustani is a classic Bollywood movie where Aamir Khan played the role of a taxi driver. There was no doubt that our Auto driver was a huge fan of Raja Hindustani and the movie had a deep impact on him. He had also fixed a big poster of the movie on the back of his auto. So Raja Hindustani took us to Auroville beach, first. The beach is located at about 12 km of Pondicherry and is more commonly known as Sand beach or Auro beach to the local people. We were happy to encounter a lot of pretty faces out there. Auroville Beach is one of the few beaches in India where surfing is possible. The beach attracts thousands of foreign tourists every year and they generally prefer to stay at the beach shacks. There were many restaurants near the beach and we decided to chill out in one of them. One of the best things about Pondicherry is the food. You can simply go to any restaurant and you won’t be disappointed. We relished different kind of recipes and consumed gallons of ice chilled beer. 

Raja Hindustani also had food with us but he politely refused our beer offer as he had to drive. I and Karuna had a great time chatting with him. Raja Hindustani was a local boy and he worked in Mumbai for a few years as a bus conductor. He then took us to the Paradise beach. It took around half an hour to reach there. As the name suggests, it’s one of the most beautiful beaches in Pondicherry. In order to go to Paradise beach one needs to take a boat, which is the one and only choice to reach there. We stayed there for a couple of hours and it was very relaxing. The wind was pleasant and the wave sounds were too soothing. By the time we left Paradise beach it already started to get dark. We asked Raja Hindustani to drop us to a nice bar in the city. 

He then took us to a place. It was a little crowded out there; many of them looked like tourists. 

'If you have come to Pondicherry then don’t miss the dance show out here,' said Raja Hindustani. 

'We are really tired and we are in no mood to watch any dance show, now'

'It’s okay, you people will enjoy this'

We bid goodbye to Raja Hindustani and then book out tickets for the dance program. It was a bit expensive but then we were also curious about it. We gulped some more chilled liquid. Now what to say? It was a totally different kind of performance by the dancers and it was beyond our wildest imagination. Well, the next day we explored a few more places, some more dishes and in the night we boarded our bus to Bangalore.

Image courtesy: google images


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