Monday

Pondicherry








The name “Pondicherry” is a Westernized version of the Tamil “puducherry” meaning “small hamlet

This city is divided into French and Tamil localities with both sections displaying architectural details peculiar to each culture. In the French Town, the streets are lined by imposing colonial buildings with stately gates and huge compound walls. The facades are usually painted cream or light pink. In the Tamil Town, houses are typically painted green, blue and brown and have large, expansive verandahs ideal for a quick chat with passers by or even to be used as an impromptu guest room for unexpected travelers

Our travel to Pondicherry revolved around the Aurobindo Ashram, the Auroville, a nearby corner street for water or snacks replenishment, and the local diner - café which we frequented often for lunch and dinner. This diner place was called Le Club that retains much of that old world grandeur even today. Am not sure if it is a new place built to look like from olden times, or a genuinely olden place. The restaurant tastefully lights up at night in the garden of the old French villa. Located on Dumas Street very close to where we were staying it had some very authentic French food that had us returning regularly.

Auroville was the other place we found ourselves gravitating towards - conceived as a utopian city where people of different nationalities from all over the world could live in harmony. Around 1900 people, most of them non Indians live here in communes. During the inauguration of this community, soil from 124 countries was poured into an urn symbolizing the oneness of humanity. One can buy beautiful hand crafted arts in here. From perfumed candles, to hand made chappals, to necklaces, exotic silver ware, lamps, ceramic pottery and hand made paper, to antiques from Tamilnad and Kerala- this place became another destination for us to visit regularly during our stay there with the hope of shopping real ‘finds’ here

Although not in the same league as Goa, Pondicherry has its share of small, uncrowded beaches. The small promenade by evening finds many strollers largely tourists , taking in the salty sea breeze. The beach is relatively free of mankind, rather rocky and unsafe for swimming.

The impressive French architecture living alongside Indian culture in harmony is a prime example of how everybody gets along in this tiny town. The serenity and relative quiet of Pondicherry is worth having a sample of – don’t go there expecting action, else you will be disappointed.

10 comments:

Seema said...

Your blog has inspired me further to visit pondicherry. I've always wanted to go to this place. Sounds awesome

Anon said...

While Pondy is cool, your blog is cooler:)
Shaukat

Neelu said...

It's been a two year plan for me and still hasn't materialised! Am missing something wonderful..

melinda said...

This is an ideal place to unwind!

ashish said...

WE on one morning went to the seafront at the crack of dawn about 5 am and saw the brilliant sunrise over steaming cups of coffee from the street vendors. What an experience that was!

Ajay Salanky said...

Nice blog & lovely pics too. Makes me want to pack my bags to pondi right away, brings back some nice old memories :)

Jim said...

Did you get an opportunity to go to Creart? You get clothing made from organic cotton, furniture and jewelry made from recycled materials. Quite a hip place it is.

Anon said...

I always imagined Pondicherry as a small laid-back town with a slow moving life. Had heard a lot about it as french colony and beaches etc. I was honestly disappointed with what I saw there. I felt like I was in another Bangalore just smaller in size! Traffic was there and driving was not that easy. We went to Marina drive (the ocean area behind Arvindo Aashram) but it was pretty ordinary. You cannot access beach from there but just view the sea. Next day we visited Arvindo aashram but again did not know much about it so found out there was nothing for tourist like us there. Aurville also was too much of walk and nothing exciting.

The weather was warm and humid in Pondicherry in August. My wife loved cloth shopping there on street! In evening we drove back to Chennai via Mahabalipuram and that's the only part I liked about Pondicherry. The drive on ECR along the ocearn was very scenic and fun.

khjbin

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