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About Pondicherry aka Puducherry

My two days in this city - state - union territory whatever you might call it are about to come to an end tonight and I proceed to see the temples built by the great Cholla kings two millennia ago.

What I discovered on my maiden voyage in this town is the following-


  • People are generally friendly and I found it extremely safe to be about in the evening hour in streets I had not seen in my life.  That to me is a big deal in India. 
  • Hospitality industry seems to have matured to the point where they will genuinely interact with you to help you rent a room - from a lodging establishment - or serve food as you like it in portion size you want.   As a single person I found some rate and tariffs unsuitable since they advertise for two but food vendor agreed to negotiate rather than lose the customer entirely.  This is progress.
  • Fairly tidy considering the filth predominant in many other cities including erstwhile conservative Pune.
  • taxi driver explained the layout as white neighborhood and black.   White is the French part and black the appas. That might include Hindu or Muslim folk.
  • City is one of few in India that is laid out in a grid and makes easy to get bearings.
  • Weather in summer is bad.  I think technically India is in monsoon season but lack of rain is evident with real feel of 90 with humidity.
  • visited a bunch of temples - two prominent ones included a 300 year old Vinayak aka Ganesh temple with a live young elephant for tourist entertainment outside and the newish 50 foot tall black granite Hanuman (remember he came before superman) on the outskirts of town in Tamilnadu state. Had to pay relatively steep toll for the same. Wrapped my wandering with a visit to the aurobindo ashram and new international city cum meditation faciliity called Auroville.
  • Finally learn to take things on Puducherry time where you will be forced to relax.  Which also means I could not tolerate it beyond a few days akin to Hawaii where the slow as molasses lifestyle means you get part of your warm bread to go with the curry that now went cold. 
  • Will post pictures describing the enterprise in a later blog. 

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