Pondicherry was the capital of French India until 1952 when it became part of the new free Indian Republic. The city seems to have had two strong influences, first the French and second Sri Aurobindo who along with “the Mother” founded an ashram where people sought “divine consciousnes.”
Our room was tiny with a bed and a small desk literally on its last leg. All that decorated the walls was a black and white photograph of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. For some reason I liked it. There wasn’t as much to see in Pondicherry as we expected. It has the feel of real Indian town (as opposed to the resorts in Goa) with a spash of French influence. For example, the local bakeries make real croissants and tasty pastries. Occassionally, the young children will great you with “bonjour” as opposed to “hello.” There is a lycee francaise (French high school.)
We visitd a paper factory (operated by the ashram) where they make fine handmade papers, photo albums, stationary, scrapbooks, etc. It was fascinating to watch the men carefully measuring, cutting and stacking the paper or the women hanging the freshly dyed sheets on clotheslines to dry. We’ve had a few opportunities in India to see things behind handmade, the blockprinted fabrics in Jodhpur, the miniature paintings in Udaipur, tailors across the country…it’s a nice feeling to know that our souvenirs we’re made by someone and not something.
After the paper factory, we visited the ashram. We don’t really know much about the workings of the ashram, but we saw the tomb of Sri Aurobindo and a mix of westerners and Indians who came to meditate there.
Our second day in Pondicherry, we rented bikes to ride out to the beach. Going for a bike ride in India is like going to the dentist, I swore (heavily) that I will never do it again. Once we got out of the city, my blood pressure dropped to near normal and we reached the beach. We actually reached the Auroville beach. Auroville is an international community. It’s a project that was conceived by the Mother where people from all of the countries of the world can live equally. They have specialized projects within the community, dealing with substainable agriculture, solar energy and water conservation; they also sell handicrafts and work with local villages.
From our perspective it is a very interesting idea, but as they are not self-substaining (they depend on tourism for a portion of the income and many grants from international organizations) they aren’t really successful yet. We read a lot of literature at their welcome center, and it seems they were very active with the tsunami relief efforts in Tamil Nadu. The beach was nice, but it had a very sharp drop off and a strong rip current, so we didn’t spend a lot of time swimming. This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 24th, 2006 at 1:11 am Jenny and Fabien Visit the Other Half of the World
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