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Published: July 22nd 2005
Sri Aurobindo Ashram
The elephant through the smokes' role was to bless peoplePondicherry (Pondy) was French colony until 1954. There is plenty to do here although no beaches in the town. The restaurants are great and there is a lot of choice including many French restaurants. The main tourist part of Pondy contains many buildings that are in French style although it is still very Indian town. It does however have a uniquely French feel similar to that of the south of France. The bus ride here from Chennai was one of the best I have taken so far in India, the views over the costal regions were particularly noteworthy, we passed kilometre after kilometre of salt mines which looked like an infinite desert of shimmering white crystal. On the journey, we got talking to an Indian Guy called Mr K Rajesh, an engineer on his way home to Pondy, he invited us to his house for dinner that evening, naturally we accepted the offer. On arrival we checked into the International Hotel, I swear my room was haunted as in the night all I heard were footsteps in the room! At 7pm Rajesh came to our hotel and arranged an autorickshaw to pick us up and take us to his house, we
Bugz
An interesting creature from the Botanical Gardens did not know what to take as a gift and could not find any flowers (appartently the done thing in India) so we settled on a box of chocolates, not the most interesting idea but better than nothing. When we got there Rajesh introduced us to his family S. Kuppusamy (his father), K Rajeswari (his mother), R. Kavitha (his wife) and his two daughters R. Charuna and R Savzrthana aged 2 and 6 months respectively. Their house was very clean but basic and consisted of one main room, a bedroom plus a kitchen and shower, we did not ask about sleeping arrangements! We were offered fruit and shown photo's of their wedding which 2000 people attended. Weddings are the most important events in most Indians lives and they save very hard for them even taking out very large loans, they spend exuberant sums for the celebration which can last up to 48 hours (far more relative to the UK both in monetary and participative terms). I think the perception in the community of the family in the community is the driver for the high expenditure. Conversation with the family was good, Rajesh and his wife spoke English well, we do
Homeless girl
A homeless girl in the park in Government Square not obviously speak any Tamil! We were served a really lovely dinner of rice pancakes, dal, spicy tomato and lime pickle. We did not eat at the same time as the family who ate before we arrived, we were well looked after. I took some photos of the family which we subsequently had developed and posted to them which we hoped they appreciated. All in all it was a really different experience, very humbling! It also gave us a real insight into how different our cultures are, at points it was difficult to know how to act and what to say but we managed. The following day we took an organised tour of Pondy which was a great way to see the city for a good price. We visited a hand made paper factory which made the most beautiful paper of exceptionally high quality I have ever seen. A particularly interesting place was Auroville, a small community outside of Pondy that was foundered by "The Mother" whose photo is in every building in Pondy. Auroville is an "experiment in international living where people could live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, politics and nationalities". About 1500 people live
there at present and their main export is really fantastic quality crafts which were available to buy in Pondy, I spent a lot of money on them! Another nice place was the botanical gardens which were very well kept, there was also had an aquarium! We took a speed boat ride at a water park which was really fun and a great way to see the estuary adjacent to Pondy. One other highlight of Pondy is down to the French again, fresh croissants, coffee and pain au chocolat's for breakfast everyday!
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anonymous
non-member comment
stay out of dodge
hahaha you were so blatently either drunk, or suffering from a hang over when you wrote this one. am I right? am I right?