Pondicherry, and the Treasures of the Seas

Pondicherry is a popular tourist destination in South India. However, for some reason I never happened to visit it for a long time. But last year (after my parents visited the place I was tempted to plan a trip too) I planned a quick visit to Pondicherry.

The beaches are super clean, the city is neat, the french houses are chic, the food is delicious – overall the place has great vibes and a bohemian feel. You can get all this (and more) info anywhere if you search about the place.

But just before Pondicherry, there’s a sleepy little, fishermen village. Just a few kilometres before a famous touristy place, yet, secluded in its own way and keeping some beautiful secrets, this place is easily missed. Also because unlike Pondicherry, this town doesn’t have much to offer to the tourists. But as they say, there’s so much everywhere, only you need to see with eyes of an explorer. And then the wonders you’d see taking place only for you in that moment – pure bliss!

Without any idea what was in store for us next, we headed to the beach and were soon walking on shores full of shells and conches of numerous shapes, sizes and colours, tonnes of fish and other creatures – possibly a discarded lot. It felt like someone has emptied a treasure chest spilling the riches of the deep seas. One such creature I saw, was a purple sea urchin. Actually, I found an interesting, shell-like thing on the shore first. It looked quite interesting, I kept it with me wondering what could it possibly be.

As we walked further on the beach we came across something kind of similar-looking object but which was purple in colour and had spines all over it. It was alive and I could see some movement when it was turned over. Now, I had to learn more about this – it was similar to the empty shell-like structure I had found a while ago. It was then that I learned (with the help of Google of course) that it is a purple sea urchin, found usually in shallow waters along the coast with strong waves. On the underside, it had a 5 teeth-like structure, which is the mouth actually. The spines present are for protection and also help it in its movement

We tried putting it back into the water but the waves were too strong and it was washed ashore within no time, every time I tossed it into the water. After a few futile attempts, we convinced ourselves that maybe that’s not what the seas want. Leaving the purple sea urchin on the soft sands, I walked far away towards the other end of the shore, wondering what’s next for the sea urchin that couldn’t make it back into the waters.

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Also watch this tiny video clip, you can see some movement of the purple sea urchin, waves crashing at the secluded beach and some other riches of the seas.