Journey to Gandhigram

Journey to Gandhigram


Our journey to the city of Gandhigram was excellent…in fact a revealing one…..
…nestle away from humdrum of city life…Gandhigram is really a place making a story for me..

…I was struck by its serene belongingness to the nature…. pristine beauty….unlike inhuman settlements of metros….

…it was a striking example of how  challenging and rewarding a lifestyle can be….given the advancement in telecommunications you need to  live in such serene  places to attain the nirvana, yet remain abreast with the world….

Away from all noises, small towns will remain  in vogue in near future to come…

India is going thru a period when consumerism is at peak…it can be seen from demand for consumer goods …this phase has demand already passed  for advanced civilizations like Europeans….now they are after search for a blissful nirvana…

My stay at Gandhigram was also a good revelation how much we need for living…
Man eats for his tongue unlike animals who eat for their stomach…we were told that we will get only a working lunch…..we thought it’s okay for us, instead of going out…
..we had veg biryani and korma and tomato rice and chutney…for lunch…
…having experienced how much we eat in cities…presented with so many dishes… we thought ,for moment, will it be sufficient for us or we will have to get up during the night and search for food?…however, as we were consuming that food, towards the finish we found that the quantity was just sufficient for subsistence and our stomach was not laden with unnecessary extras…

…the food was in fact such a nice and soothing….the masalas were to the extent of just bringing out flavour, aroma, to make it palatable…also acting as anti-dotes on many ill-effects of pesticides that enter into the food…..yet refraining from making it heavy…

…given a misnomer, eating only rice will put us dosing….we found that although our food consisted of rice, at lunch,yet we never felt such urge to doze….

….for dinner two thick chapaties/parathas and a gram based dish and chana…. at around 7.30 p.m…..unlike time for dinner for me…here also when we were consuming our second chapati we found that our stomach was full…realized that the food in this quantity is sufficient….…we tend to consume more in evening ‘coz in working families it is the dinner at which all family members are together and hence, many dishes are prepared and we tend to eat more….

….7’ o clock in evening and you don’t see vehicular  noises ….no TV or music being honked…. there is no usual humdrum… nothing of this sort….you tend to figure out why this lull,  is there any mistake?…no Sir, this is GRI, Gandhigram… we are amazed at the nature here, serenely calm…a person like me, born and brought up in Mumbai…I was wondering if I will be able to pass my time….then realized that I am here for study….for attending the classes…..so I sat down and opened my books and started reading …this is the place , I thought, you need environment like this for concentrating on your subjects…

…after the end of the second day of the class, when my classmates had gone back home and I was still there in the hostel…my flight was on the next evening…I felt a big void…how a man can spend his time in isolation  or solitude…at the same time I was wondering what my son may be feeling when he is alone at his hostel, when his friends are away….but then realized that this situation is needed if you have to achieve something and also good for concentration…..