What exactly these people had done

Pondicherry, with its French heritage, is unlike any other part of India I've seen. It also contains a lot more westerners than anywhere I'd seen (before reaching Agra). Despite the hype I found that there were two attractions. The first is a chance to break from eating curry and rice, served on banana leaves, with your (right!) fingers and get some traditional French meals.

The second is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. "Founded in 1926 by Sri Aurobindo and a French woman known as the mother, this ashram . . . propounds spiritual tenets that represent a synthesis of yoga and modern science." (LP) The ashram seems to own half the town, a fact which has apparently caused some local contention. Visitors file passed the tomb of the founders which lie, well decorated, in the ashram courtyard. I stood in the unusual (for India) silence and wondered what exactly these people had done to leave so many people praying to a couple of corpses.

Neither of Pondicherry's attractions particularly grabbed me as firstly I don't like French food (except perhaps the bread and the seafood) and I'm quite happy to eat curry with my fingers (less washing up!) Secondly I found the devotion and condescension of the ashram devotees to be rather strange and almost pitiable. posted by Michael United Kingdom Monday, March 06, 2006 at 8:03 AM