📆 28th April

⌛ 10:00 PM

  • Started for the bus boarding point.
  • Bus was 15 minutes early for the first time ever. Asked the cab driver to speed it up.

⌛ 10:30 PM

  • Boarded the bus. It started within a minute.
  • After getting on the bus, gave a status update to mum 🙋‍♀️, A friend also called later.
  • Slept at ⌚ 12:20 AM.


📆 29th April

⌛ 06:00 AM

  • Woke up.
  • Watched the sunrise from the bus. The original plan was to go to the Rock Beach 📍 from Pondicherry 📍 bus stand and watch the sun rise.
  • Pinged a few friends about my arrival.
  • I got worried when the driver took a different route. He later converged on the correct route.

⌛ 07:30 AM

⌛ 08:00 AM

  • Walked to Vagabond 📍 from bus stand.
  • Sriram 🙋‍♂️, the property manager, showed me to the top bunk bed on the ground floor.
  • Met Saiprasanth 🙋‍♂️ and Santosh 🙋‍♂️.
  • Brushed my teeth and went to the terrace.
  • Met two new people from Bengal/Odisha. They both have a recruiting company in Bangalore. They came 30 minutes before me. They had booked the Vagabond Airbnb.
  • Felt hungry. Sriram 🙋‍♂️ suggested Auroville Bakery 📍.

⌛ 08:20 AM

  • Took one of the property bicycles to the bakery. Cycled ~2 KMs.
  • Did not want to experiment. So ordered Idli and Red Rice Cheese Dosa. The dosa was not good. :/
  • Breakfast was filling.
  • Came back feeling super hot.

⌛ 09:20 AM

  • Met Tanusha 🙋‍♀️ and Anushka 🙋‍♀️.
  • Explored the property’s garden and terrace.
  • So many Jackfruit trees. A few mango trees as well.
  • Worked on the Swiggy blog for a few minutes.


📆 3rd May

⌛ 10:30 PM

  • Came to the terrace.
  • Migrated the blog google analytics tag.
  • Started Pondi travelogue. Published it.


📆 4th May

⌛ 12:30 AM

⌛ 09:00 AM

  • Finished Anki.
  • Breakfast: mango shake and 1 chila. Naveen 🙋‍♂️ prepared it for everyone at the hostel. Amazing guy. He loves to do this. This is a very different feeling for me. A good different.

⌛ 10:00 AM

  • Started work. Working on a terrace is a mind blowing experience.

⌛ 01:30 PM

  • Went to Sustenance Cafe with Naveen 🙋‍♂️ on Santosh 🙋‍♂️’s scooty.
  • I had a South Indian meal (it was good) for 150 bucks. Naveen 🙋‍♂️ had 3 chapati and sabji for 90 bucks (not so good).
  • I met a French guy named Benoit 🙋‍♂️. He is on a two-week long tour in India. He’s going to go to Mysore tomorrow. From India, he is going to London. He is a technology writer. I told him about Swiggy.
  • We shared Instagram deets.
  • Inquired about a scooty for us. Rs 3000 for a Pep for a month. Rs 3500 for an Access for a month. Naveen 🙋‍♂️ and I will share it till he is here. Post that it will be with me.
  • We will get it in the evening.

⌛ 02:30 PM

  • Back to working on the terrace.
  • In a meeting, my boss asked me how my workation was going. Told him all the fun things I did.

⌛ 06:00 PM

  • Fellow hostelers left for a swim on the Serenity Beach 📍. I was in a meeting at that time. But they were thoughtful enough to leave the key to a scooty for me.
  • I drove it to the beach without any incident. It was the first time I had ridden a scooty on the main road. Traffic was light so it was easy. I am feeling more confident now. I forgot the road leading to the beach, but a few shopkeepers helped.
  • Joined these folks. It was a low tide but waves were big enough for light surfing. Sriram 🙋‍♂️ was on his surf board. Santosh 🙋‍♂️, Naveen 🙋‍♂️, and I swam in the water.
  • I had a goal of going for a swim three times this week. I achieved that.

⌛ 08:36 PM

  • Went to Jeffi Restaurant 📍 for dinner. With Naveen 🙋‍♂️, Santosh 🙋‍♂️, and Ved 🙋‍♂️. This place was suggested by Sriram 🙋‍♂️.
  • Finished the objective of visiting three new restaurants.
  • Today is Ved 🙋‍♂️’s last night in Pondicherry 📍.
  • We had tandoori chicken, chettined chicken, phulka, and butter roti. Spent Rs 915.
  • Went to Richy Rich Ice Creams 📍. Ate a 120 bucks scoop of Belgian Almond Chocolate ice cream.

⌛ 10:00 PM

  • Reached the Vagabond 📍.
  • Came to terrace and relaxed till ⌚ 2 AM. Slept by ⌚ 2:20 AM.


📆 5th May

⌛ 09:15 AM

  • Woke up. Finished Anki.
  • Naveen 🙋‍♀️ had texted saying that two chocolate croissants 🥐 where kept on the dining table. Again, so thoughtful of him.

⌛ 10:25 AM

  • Finished my croissants 🥐. Not warm, but still tasted good.
  • MacBook started updating. Useless laptop. Finally, finished updating right before I had to take an interview. Phew.

⌛ 01:10 PM

  • I wanted to try out Sree Andhra Tiffins 📍. Others didn’t want to go out. So, went alone.
  • Went by scooty. I was able to maneuver through the traffic, red lights, and local Pondicherry market. Felt accomplished.
  • Plan of gaining confidence in riding a 2-wheeler is going well.

⌛ 01:35 PM

  • Ate a classic meal. It was a large and sumptuous meal 😋.
  • It was served on a banana leaf. It contained: three dishes, rice + podi + ghee, pickled garlic, rice + sambhar, rice + rasam, rice + curd curry, papadam, and mango slices.
  • All this for 110 bucks.
  • Got a meal packed for others.
  • The person sitting opposite to me has been eating at this place since 2008. Whenever he visits to Pondicherry 📍, he always eats his meals here.

⌛ 02:02 PM

  • I had to come back to the hostel by ⌚ 2:00 PM for a meeting. Unfortunately, I was still at the restaurant.
  • Joined the call from phone listening everything on my earphones. Hard to manage because I had to stop at places to participate.
  • Reached back at ⌚ 2:30 PM

⌛ 05:30 PM

  • Met Dinesh 🙋‍♂️. He checked-in today. He drove from Bangalore 📍 to Pondicherry 📍. He is an iOS developer.

⌛ 06:20 PM

  • Reached the Serenity Beach 📍 with Naveen 🙋‍♂️, Santosh 🙋‍♂️, Sriram 🙋‍♂️, and Dinesh 🙋‍♂️.
  • I drove the scooty with Naveen 🙋‍♂️ as a pillion rider. 💪
  • I swam three long laps. I caught two waves 🏄‍♂️ with Sriram 🙋‍♂️’s help.

⌛ 08:20 PM

  • Naveen 🙋‍♂️ had started cooking 🧑‍🍳.
  • He was preparing okra dish.
  • I assisted him. I cut onions. I prepared chapati dough. I also prepared banana shake. Both of us prepared 9 chapatis.
  • It took us ⌚ 1.5 hours to prepare the whole meal 🧑‍🍳. We talked about multiple things while cooking.
  • Five of us ate together. It was nice.

⌛ 10:00 PM

  • Told my mum 🙋‍♀️ about today.
  • Talked to Naveen 🙋‍♂️ about his CFA certification.
  • Wrote today’s tavelogue.


📆 6th May

⌛ 12:00 AM

  • Listening to Santosh 🙋‍♂️ and Dinesh 🙋‍♂️ talking. They are drunk.
  • Dinesh 🙋‍♂️ is going to resign on Monday and move to Canada in August.
  • Dinesh 🙋‍♂️ went to get more beers. Santosh 🙋‍♂️ started talking about Vagabond 📍. He says, “Every week I think about moving to other city or place, but then I don’t.” He goes on: “It is never the place. It is always the people. People make it worthwhile. I always meet someone new.”
  • He came to Pondicherry for only 2 days. It is his third month.
  • One of the friends I knew before I came to Bangalore told me that if you don’t have an agenda of why you want to come here then this place is going to grow on you. I wonder how it will be.

⌛ 02:10 AM

⌛ 09:00 AM

  • Woke up, and did the usual. Work started early due to a few P0 issues.
  • Market low. “Buy on dip.”

⌛ 01:40 PM

  • Lunch @ Baghiraa Cafe & Co Work 📍 with Naveen 🙋‍♂️.
  • Bought a few personal care items (shower gel, and moisturizer) from Farm Fresh 📍.
  • Came back to the hostel. Of course, I was using scooty for all the transportation.

⌛ 06:00 PM

  • Biked 🚲 to Serenity Beach 📍. Finished four laps today. 💪
  • Came back on scooty with Santosh 🙋‍♂️ while Naveen 🙋‍♂️ cycled back.

⌛ 08:45 PM

  • Ragavan 🙋‍♂️ came to pick me up. (context: Ragavan is a dear friend from school. He was in Pondi today, so we planned to catch-up.)
  • We went to Cafe 73 📍 on his cousin’s bullet. Coincidence was that Cafe 73 is a bike themed cafe. There is a bike on display when you enter. All the walls have some bike art. Sriram 🙋‍♂️ had suggested to try out non-veg burgers 🍔 from here. Ragavan ordered The Ferrari F40 and I ordered The Turbo Charger. And burgers were succulent.
  • We started with work and life. We discussed Pondi and nearby places. We discussed my city hopping plan. We ended with him inviting me to his place in Chennai on a weekend.
  • We went to the Serenity Beach 📍 to relax. Sat on the rocks. Listened to the waves crashing against other rocks. Talked about random things.
  • It took me back to 2018. Ragavan and I were in Mysore 📍. We were meeting after 6-7 years. We went to Mysore to attend the Mysore Dasara celebrations. It ends with the whole palace lighted with 100,000 light bulbs. After it ended, the workers started packing up all the chairs and tents. We were sitting on a pair of chairs in the last row. And we started going through the 7 years worth of events from each other’s life. Both of us, vicariously experienced each other’s life. It was an amazing end to our days.
  • He dropped me back to Vagabond 📍.

⌛ 11:00 PM

  • Came on terrace to write this log. Santosh 🙋‍♂️, Dinesh 🙋‍♂️, and Tanusha 🙋🏻‍♀️ were already here.
  • Talked to a friend about product management and design.
  • Six college students joined us. They were staying at the Airbnb.
  • Suddenly, Gales started. It rained a bit. And then there was a power cut. The climate became cool and refreshing. No humidity in the air.
  • Asked Santosh 🙋‍♂️ what else defines him besides being a fitness coach. He took time before answering. His answer was: inventions, start ups, and product design. He had a course about product design. He wants to build a product in fitness domain.
  • He is traveling since November 2021. He had to come back from Dubai due to Covid related incidents in family. After settling everything, he couldn’t go back to Dubai. He started traveling: Rishikesh 📍, Mysore 📍 and now, here.


📆 7th May

⌛ 02:45 PM

  • Started working on this log.
  • Off to sleep.

⌛ 12:30 PM

  • Just woke up. Those six college students left.
  • What are you going to do after your CFA exam on 24th? Naveen answered that he is going to stay home and earn money till the results come. Mode of earning money: trading. He was confident about it. If he had the freedom, he would have been traveling all around to play all kinds of sports.
  • He volunteered at Mantra Surf Club 📍 earlier this year. Coincidently, my beginner surfing course was also at Mantra. We talked about the instructors and some surfing tricks. We may go for surfing next week. ‘tis the surfing season in Pondi.
  • He has also done the beginner and intermediate Skiing courses from JIM & WS 📍. I have been trying to plan for the same course since last year. Hopefully, next year. 🤞🏼

⌛ 01:45 PM

  • Lunch @ Neem Tree Cafe 📍 with Naveen. I had Red Rice and Dosa meal and he had chapati sabzi meal. It was disappointing. Both the meals had the same dishes. That meant I had to eat my dosa with lauki (gourd) instead of sambhar or some chutney. This restaurant was inside Auroville 📍. Not sure what to expect from the other Auroville restaurants in my list.
  • Came back and slept again. Today was a slow day.

⌛ 06:00 PM

⌛ 08:15 PM

  • Dinner @ Baghiraa Cafe & Co Work 📍 with Naveen and Santosh.
  • We discussed workout and nutrition with Santosh. I wanted to know how to tighten the skin around my abs. Answer: Planks and Wall Press Dead Bug. We talked about eating sugars. He also mentioned the importance of fat in the body. Apparently, leanest body will require 6-7% fat in the body. Normal is ~20%. Looking at my physique, he said I would be under 20%. Anything above 15% and under 25% is good.
  • I gotta take a Nutrition 101 course.