I really want a sari!
Puducherry, Pondicherry or Pondy….all the same place!! Keeping up with all these place names is quite hard and working out which app or search engine uses which spelling is also nutty!
On the journey there we discovered some of the price differentials in the train tickets I mentioned before. Seems we have unknowingly been buying tickets for ‘general’ class but sitting in the sleeper compartments instead. We discovered this when an Indian couple made us move!! We then walked to the back of the (very long) train only to find the general class door locked and one of the train conductors telling us there were “1000 people” in there and we couldn’t go in as we had bags! We then walked back to the original seats and waited for the other train conductor who worked out where we could sit if we paid an upgrade, but never came back for the money! At least we now know!
Pondicherry was the biggest French colony in India, but today is rather more ‘India’ than ‘France’!
We arrived in the early evening and I felt as if I had been dropped into Oxford Street after having lived in a cave! Compared with the other towns we have visited it seemed much more cosmopolitan. That may be because it is a smaller town and so everything is more compact, but certainly took a bit of getting used to! There were bright flashing neon lights above restaurants, shops, the market….anything really. There were bars a plenty and places to "take out”, not just beer, but spirits and wine too. I did search for French wine in one shop, but could only find Indian wine, so decided to forgo that!!
We spent 4 chilled out days here, but really there’s not a lot to see! Some beautiful colonial buildings, a beach you can’t swim from and a knackered pier you can’t walk on as it could drop into the sea at any time!!
We spent mornings having late breakfasts in ‘French’ tourist cafes, enjoying the break from idli and dosa and then smarting at the bill in comparison with the price we would have paid for an idli or a dosa!!
We walked a lot - thus discovering that we are even competitive against each other in our step rate on the pedometer app we have on our phones!! We also discovered that the reward of a 7 day ’streak’ of hitting over 10,000 steps per day is actually such a motivation for us that I went for a couple of extra walks up and down the stairs and corridor in the hotel to hit my target and one night Chris was seen running up and down on the spot in the hotel room waving his phone-carrying arm around excessively!!
The most fun I had was an hour spent in a department store called Pothys. Mostly I walked around with my mouth hanging open, being sorely tempted to buy something, but not knowing in the faintest where to start!! The ground floor was an abundance of fabrics to make saris and churidars (legging and smock tops) - beautiful fabric - in cotton, in silk, Bombay style (?) and a zillion different other words I didn’t know; 2 for 1 offers: ready-made blouses (I think the short, fitted Indian blouses with a particularly tempting gold blingy one I liked)….aaahhh, bliss! Upstairs were even more choices, but this was more Harrods with options for weddings, Diwali, engagements and more words I didn’t know. Seems you buy the fabric and then take it to a tailor for making up.
Imagine as an Indian lady you have spent your whole life wearing saris or shalwar kameez and then you are suddenly dropped into Ballantynes or Debenhams being faced with trousers, blouses, skirts, evening wear, school uniforms and work clothes...it might be a bit overwhelming if you don't know what these clothes are or that you buy them ready made, not as a piece of fabric to be tailored! That was me!
I am so tempted to buy a sari, but really just don't know where to start in terms of fabric , colour or style. I have learned from googling that it isn't just as easy (?) as wrapping yourself in gorgeous fabric, there are different styles of pleating and draping! It might take me all of my time in India to pluck up the courage..and then of course, I need to work out how to get it back to NZ as I certainly don't have enough space in my small rucksack!
Even the mens’ section had a packet containing fabric for a shirt and fabric for trousers!
Upstairs was a supermarket too! This was the second one we had found in Pondicherry and in our trip - we were like kids in a sweet shop just walking around looking at things we recognised and things we didn’t! Hard to believe we have only been away 3 weeks!! I bought a metal spoon to replace my broken plastic spork and a packet of masala crisps! We buy these boil in the bag curries at home for our camping trips!!
We also loved wandering through the flower market looking at mounds of beautiful and aromatic flower heads being sold by weight - marigolds, roses, fresias. Stall holders were also sat plaiting flowers into great long garlands. Ladies wear flowers in their hair (walking past a group of ladies gives a wonderful smell); there are flowers offered at the temple; draped over the front of cars and left outside houses.
After 4 nights we have shifted 10km outside of Puducherry to a place called Auroville. Slightly hard to describe…it’s an ‘international town’ built in 1968 to bring together the people of the world in greater understanding of each other to live in harmony and peace. It is meant to be without politics and religion and is based on the principle of ‘karma’ yoga (ie through work and deeds) to bring people to a greater understanding of their own divine purpose in life.
There is a giant gold golfball temple in the centre called the Matrimandir. Inhabitants of Auroville can go inside and meditate. Visitors have to book to go inside for a 15 minute meditation slot and there was a waitlist of 5 days, so we didn’t do that!
The ground is red and dusty (like central Australia) - I used to have black shoes, but they are brown now!! It’s been planted with millions of trees so it has a relatively pleasant leafy feel about it. The town has been designed to house 50,000 people, but from what we can see there’s still only about 2,500 people living there now. I love the principle of Auroville, but it has the feel of a decaying university campus that never really lived up to its dreams. Inside one of the buildings we came across the process for the ‘residents advisory committee’ and started to get an insight into the real workings of how a town like that has to work…not all peace and harmony I am sure! Reminded me of all the things that Amnesty had in place to ensure democracy and consensus….sometimes I found it a little painful!!
Where next?
We have signed up to a platform called Workaway (https://www.workaway.info/) which matches hosts and volunteer workers, so on Tuesday we’re heading up to the Yelagiri Hills to help at a Samaritan’s Residential School and School Camp. They need help with marketing, gardening, English teaching….and more, so we are not totally sure what expect or how long we will be there for, but we’re looking forward to a ‘different’ experience! Except the arriving at the local train station at 230am!!
Doubt we’ll have much internet there, so it might be some time before we’re back online!
