Life at PY

When you’ve been friends for ten years, there aren’t many things you haven’t done together. But when best friends are getting married, it just calls for a special celebration. This is the story of four best friends on a bachelorette trip to Pondicherry.

A seven am flight to Chennai couldn’t have been more exciting and at the airport, as we chowed down on hot coffee and sandwiches (yes, we had enough time, surprisingly!), I have to say, we had our very own ‘Zindagi na Milegi Dobara’ moment. Three best friends who had known each other since school and here we were, taking our first trip together. Our fourth friend was on a train to Chennai a day before our flight took off. This was it. 

The drive to Pondi from the Chennai airport was kicked off with some roadside-dhabba type food and we were set for a three-hour drive along the East Coast Road. Excitedly peeping out the windows, we already knew Pondi was going to be beautiful.

Aadhaar, the guesthouse where we were staying, had two rooms, an open balcony, a kitchenette open to the terrace and a bathroom that was also – wait for it – open to the sky! The balcony had a hammock – which we all scrambled towards as soon as we saw it – beautiful tiffany lamps hung from the ceiling and comfy chairs made us forget within minutes about our crazy lives back home in Delhi. Here we were, palm trees all around us gushing in the wind, the view of a lighthouse in the distance (which only got prettier at night), and a wrecked shipyard to the back of the guesthouse which had its own, old-world charm (think Titanic).

The next day we walked on pebbled streets and admired the yellow French buildings in White Town near the Promenade. We had our ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ moment when we reached Paradise beach after a short ferry ride. It was the cleanest, clearest beach we had ever seen. As four of us held hands and ran into the waves, I knew nothing could change this bond between us – not even marriage! We were all growing up, but this is how we’d face life forever, hand-in-hand. 

When you’ve been best friends most of your life, there isn’t much you don’t know about each other, but travelling together, experiencing a new place together, making such memories together, only makes your bond stronger. And I never want to go to Pondi again, for that is my secret with my best friends. It is our Narnia, our Hogwarts, and forever shall be.

Best Friends Forever