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bonjour india
breakfast at Alliance Française. what a regal courtyard, another of the heritage buildingswe're in a quaint and charming little indian union territory of puducherry (more affectionately known as pondicherry/pondi; hellooo alcohol!); with a salient and conspicuous french colonial heritage that looms large. ergo, lanes/streets are Rues and fish is poisson and they do a mighty fine coq au vin (haha yes we're not that cheap charlies afterall; we do indulge in spurts). its a seaside town so thats a pretty big plus as we soak up the bay of bengal. azure waters it patently isnt haha! water does glisten sporadically. one thing's for sure, all that glitters isnt gold, as b finds herself plagued with the mandatory stomach bug & diarrhea. its the quintessential rite of passage that everyone goes thru' to then be fully inducted into India proper haha. so she's fine & well, surmounted that litmus test after 2 days of rest, antibiotics, electrolyte drinks, and a trip to the dodgy doc haha. its really unnerving to be confronted with a bad bout of the runs, and its really amplified many times over when ur bowels are like a leaking faucet in india.
india has always been a cradle of "eastern" spirituality; and at the very fore of the new
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customary couple shot haha age/religious consciousness and movements (NRMs). having been enamored by all these vanguard even revolutionary NRMs in the sociology of religion module i read, Pondi was a more than apposite locus into the world of cults & sects (in the most neutral meaning). in Pondi there's a movement started by indian freedom fighter, poet, philosopher and yogi Sri Aurobindo. together with his protege(?) Mirra Alfassa, they fashioned this new syncretic avant-garde thing that amalgamates science, yoga, philosophy (among others) that has garnered a cult following in Pondi. so you see their Ashrams (religions hermitage) everywhere, they run, inter alia, shelters, travel services, yoga classes. Mirra is more colloquially known by the moniker "The Mother" (freaked out already?) cos Aurobindo thinks she's the manifestation or avatar or some deity. so anws you get the whole gamut here, from erstwhile hippies who havent outgrew the 60s, to the 'tune in/drop out' experimental folk who come to Pondi (and the Mother) for spiritual succor and the like.
so that begs the question, WHERE DO WE FIT IN IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS? hahaha we stayed in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram-ran guest house, thats where! hahaha not exactly the spiritual or meditating sort,
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haha b lapping up her Crêpe complète and lassi. stomach no more royal rumble the Ashram beachfront guest house made the most sense for us- the budget and karma-conscious! everyday we get hollered at to join 'collective meditation' sessions, are inundated with the pairs' precepts and tenets, and most unsettling of all is the ubiquitous 'Mother's' portrait bolted to every wall, whose visage you either find benign or plain harrowing. no prizes for guessing which side of the fence im on. the guest house is really the archetypal 'total institution' Goffman wrote about- austere, heavy surveillance, curfews, gated/garrisoned, etc. (read b's blog's for more details haha www.keepsteadypace.blogspot.com). they've even got an experimental township some 10km off Pondi called Auroville (whose membership is very international); along the lines of the Israeli kibbutz type, but sounds more People's Temple & Jonestown-esque to me.
so anws blood-curdling chronicles aside, Pondi is a breath of fresh air. with the winning constellation of the beach and promenade, the french history, architecture and landscape, the languid stupor, and food (which for me was the clincher), its not hard to envisage why Pondi wields such appeal. kerala beckons and we'd be headed there soon. hope the folks at home are fine!
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vliaw
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Dont think I can go to India even how strong my stomach can be... but U guys continue to watch yr diet, eat and travel safe.