A Taste of France

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Currently in Pondicherry, albeit only for a day and one night. I arrived this morning on the 2nd having taken an overnight bus from Madurai and will have to leave tomorrow to arrive in Chennai (Madras) on the 3rd so I can catch my flight to the Andaman Islands early in the morning on the 4th. Phew!

Pondicherry is lovely, a very picturesque town on the seaside with a huge French influence. Not surprising seeing as it was once an important French trading post after they took it by force from the East India Trading company who founded the town. Almost all the roads here are named in French, such as Rue Suffren, Rue de la Marine, Rue de la Compagnie and Rue Francois Martin among many others. There's a plethora of French restaurants with names like La Terrasse, Le Club and Le Rendezvous, many French bakeries selling croissants, pain au chocolates, and baguettes, and surviving French colonnial buildings en masse around the sea shore, including the lieutenant governer's residence, the Hotel de Ville and a branch of the Alliance Francaise. You'd think you were in a town on the south coast of France (with the hot weather)! Plenty of French expats live here, and it's surreal hearing some of the locals talking in French too! Even the policemen here have hats like the French policemen back in France! Makes me think I'm in France sometimes! Makes me think about Sev and how I used to see her in France most weekends! I'm gonna miss her!! Oh well! C'est la vie! Have to move on, there's so many more places to see, countries to explore, different nationalities of women to experience! ;)
Checked into a cheap hotel, the International Guest House, run by the SAS. No, not the British elite force, but the Sri Aurobindo Society, a strange new age 'cult', one can only call it, founded by a Bengali philosopher-guru called Aurobindo Ghosh and his chief disciple, personal manager and mouthpiece, 'The Mother' who are revered by the locals. Aurobindo and 'The Mother' are both entombed in the ashram they founded back in 1926. There's even a new-age 'City of Dawn', called Auroville, inspired by 'The Mother', built 10km north of Pondichery in 1968. A bunch of people live there in little communities with name like 'Fertile', 'Sincerity', 'Revelation' and 'Certitude'. Very odd. They live by very strict rules, and own most of the businesses in Pondicherry, just like the hostel I'm staying in. I'd visit Auroville, but I don't have time, plus I'm worried about being kidnapped and brainwashed into joining their 'cult' in the Matri Mandir, their huge space-age spherical meditation center, 'a symbol of the Divine's answer to man's inspiration for perfection', apparently. There's a huge 1m crystal ball hanging in the center of the place too, 'symbolising th neutral but divine qualities of light and space' by all reports. Strange. The hostel I'm staying at has tons of rules, such as a curfew (back by 10pm), no killing of mosquitos (ok, any living thing found in your room, but they're certainly the most abundant), no smoking, drinking, music, etc, and you have to smile. There's signs everywhere declaring overpowering 'philosophies of life' that you just can't avoid.
So anyhow, I wandered around town the last few hours, that's all it takes to see the whole place. It's not very big, perhaps 2km long by the seafront and reaching 1km or so inland. I stopped by a French bakery and had a delicious croissant, pain au chocolate and a cold coffee (aaah, such a nice change from dosas and idlis for breakfast!) Wasn't going to drink a hot coffee in the 40C heat here! The seafront is lovely, just like the French mediterranean ports. Evidence of the tsunami that hit here is scarce, although a few buildings being renovated late after can still be seen here and there. It's hard to imagine so many people lost their lives here in Pondicherry, along the coast of Tamil Nadu, which the tsunami wreaked the most havoc in India. People walk and mill by the seafront, with ice cream sellers abound, and most of the destruction caused by the tsunami has been rectified quickly.
Otherwise, there's not much else to do here, but walk around and enjoy the distinctly French ambience here in this colonial corner of India. This'll probably be my last blog entry for the next two and a half weeks since there's no internet on Havelock Island, where I'll be staying and scuba diving in the Andaman chain. After writing this, I think I'll head to a nice terrace restaurant by the seafront and have myself a glass of St.Emillion red, steak aux poivre (bleu-rare garcon!) and a Gauloise cigarette for finishers. Chin-chin, bon appetite, merci et au revoir pour deux semaine mes amis!