Most of India was colonized by England, but there are remnants of other countries carving up the subcontinent--Portugal in Goa and France in the city of Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu. A group of us took a weekend trip to the latter. I arranged a bus with a driver for the weekend. He showed up with a large white and pink van, it had worn brown patterned seats and could hold 14 people. It boasted "business class" on the outside, haha but not quite the business class I'm used to! We piled in after a hearty breakfast of egg dosai and chai tea and began the 3 hour journey to travel the 160km to Pondicherry.
The journey there was pretty comfortable, the van was spacious and air conditioned and the roads, especially the highways were well paved. We put on a Tamil music video DVD collection that covered up the omniscient honking horn. All of the videos were of a male and female fawning over each other with a group of same sexed back up dancers breaking it down in synchrony behind them. The English subtitles at the bottom were confusing and slightly disturbing, "how titillating!" "I want to gestate in you for 10 months" and "you can leave your family and care for me" are some of the gems I can remember offhand. One refreshing observation was that the women in the videos have normal sized stomachs--I wonder how that translates to body image and eating disorders in this country (although American media certainly makes its way over here).
We passed miles of rice paddies and watermelon fields and coconut trees. We passed small villages and a brand new KFC. We also saw a brick making assembly line from gathering the clay to shaping the bricks to leaving them in the sun to a giant kiln spewing smoke (which we originally thought was a house fire).
A few hours later we made it to Pondicherry and immediately the architecture had a French feel and the streets were a little (barely) cleaner than vellore. There was more traffic on the main street. It was so tight with our giant van that someone hit our rear view mirror. The drivers pulled over, got out, yelled at each other in Tamil for awhile, and when ours got back in he said simply, "that guy is worthless." And drove on.
We got to our hotel where we had reserved 2 rooms for 6 people each. When we looked in, however, there was 1 double bed and 1 single bed in each. Everyone loves a good cuddle, but without A/C that could be pushing it. We were able to get twice as many rooms though fortunately.
The "white area" and French parts of town were way cleaner and quieter (no honking allowed!) than I've grown accustomed to. There were some streets with hardly any traffic and quaint courtyards with colorful flowers. You could then walk one street over and be on a dirty, busy street with trash-spewn all over and mangy, feral dogs fighting over it.
We went to a Indian / French cafe and man is the food there delicious! I got chappatta (like whole wheat flat naan) and warm dhal (lentil based) and a diet coke (a rare find in the developing world!) and it was delicious and comforting. I also got to split chocolate chip pancakes with rich cream sauce. They were like little chocolate cakes! It was especially wonderful because the chocolate items I've tried so far have been uniformly terrible. (Fortunately our campus store carries Nutella!) There was a white woman with a French accent (there are tons of French ex-pats in the city), so I got excited to use my French and ask her about the Hindu temple. Turns out she didn't speak a word of French and just picked up the accent from living here. They had a home made artisanal shop attached so we shopped around the clothing, jewelry, handmade paper items, soaps, and incense.
From there we moseyed to a church--Notre Dame des anges-- which only resembled it's namesake by the two spaced towers. It was instead peach pastel colored and the interior was a pastel blue with stained glass. The disturbing thing was the group of young boys sweeping it out. They didn't look happy and I hope it wasn't child labor, since I know that is still a problem in this region.
We then went shopping because this city has tons of cute shops, and walked along the canal. (The canal is a sewage stream down the center of town.) And made our way to the hindu temple where a very sad and sick looking elephant with tons of gold bling and white paint took my rupees in his hairy and slimy nostril in exchange for a pat on my head as a blessing. We then had to shed our shoes to go in the temple itself. Hindu temples are full of images of many deities (often with many heads or limbs) and colors and incense and statues. Did you know Hinduism has 330 million deities? Can you tell I had time in the van to read the culture section in the guidebook?
That night a few of us did yoga in India, which is super exciting. We didn't get to do a full out ashram experience because that requires a 3 week to 6 month commitment, which we didn't really have time for, but we did have time for a 2 hour session on a rooftop lead by a local graduate of the famous ashram in Pondicherry.
The tough part was doing yoga outside at dusk not having been smart enough to remember bug spray. Here we are trying to do some meditative forms of yoga while I'm slapping and swatting away. Regardless, it was so relaxing to distance myself mentally from the car horns I could hear in the distance. We did some mantras, some breathing, some sun salutations and the like... I don't do yoga enough to appreciate the differences from the US but the girls who went that do it a lot found it unpleasantly different.
The guy leading the class never got my name, but called me "Indian" instead because apparently I could pass for a North Indian. He'd be like "Hey Indian, straighten those arms!" We finished off the night at a classy restaurant on--you guessed it--a rooftop, and then strolled along the Promenade that was closed to cars every evening. The sea breeze did wonders for dispersing mosquitos.
The following morning a friend Alex and I stumbled upon a cute, outdoor cafe and got French crepes--sweet and savory. It was incroyable!
Then we all boarded the bus to check out Auroraville which is this self-sufficient community near Pondicherry and has inhabitants from all over the world. They have this giant golden golf-ball looking dome that has a white room with a perfect crystal in the center for unadulterated meditation, but we were not allowed to go inside unless invited by The Mother. Oh yeah, it's kind of a cult with a divine being--The Mother-- and searching for divine truth. They also share everything, don't use money (then why were the pastries and gift shops so expensive?) and cook organically.
Me and another girl had called a PADI diving place ahead of time to squeeze in a dive in the Indian Ocean, and the guy on the phone said no problem, come by around 2. We got there at 1:57 to find that they never dive past 11am. Fail. You almost come to expect these types of things here. Instead we went shopping and I got a meditation bowl among many, many other things. En route back to the bus we saw a guy lying on the sidewalk who was clearly dead and there were flies eating his face. It was one of the more disturbing things I've ever seen and I don't know why no one was attending to it. In lighter news, the driver didn't show up to the meeting place, but somehow he was parked next to the shop I was in and when I knocked he woke up, ready for the drive home! We all wished we were based in Pondicherry instead of Vellore.
The journey there was pretty comfortable, the van was spacious and air conditioned and the roads, especially the highways were well paved. We put on a Tamil music video DVD collection that covered up the omniscient honking horn. All of the videos were of a male and female fawning over each other with a group of same sexed back up dancers breaking it down in synchrony behind them. The English subtitles at the bottom were confusing and slightly disturbing, "how titillating!" "I want to gestate in you for 10 months" and "you can leave your family and care for me" are some of the gems I can remember offhand. One refreshing observation was that the women in the videos have normal sized stomachs--I wonder how that translates to body image and eating disorders in this country (although American media certainly makes its way over here).
We passed miles of rice paddies and watermelon fields and coconut trees. We passed small villages and a brand new KFC. We also saw a brick making assembly line from gathering the clay to shaping the bricks to leaving them in the sun to a giant kiln spewing smoke (which we originally thought was a house fire).
We got to our hotel where we had reserved 2 rooms for 6 people each. When we looked in, however, there was 1 double bed and 1 single bed in each. Everyone loves a good cuddle, but without A/C that could be pushing it. We were able to get twice as many rooms though fortunately.
The "white area" and French parts of town were way cleaner and quieter (no honking allowed!) than I've grown accustomed to. There were some streets with hardly any traffic and quaint courtyards with colorful flowers. You could then walk one street over and be on a dirty, busy street with trash-spewn all over and mangy, feral dogs fighting over it.
We went to a Indian / French cafe and man is the food there delicious! I got chappatta (like whole wheat flat naan) and warm dhal (lentil based) and a diet coke (a rare find in the developing world!) and it was delicious and comforting. I also got to split chocolate chip pancakes with rich cream sauce. They were like little chocolate cakes! It was especially wonderful because the chocolate items I've tried so far have been uniformly terrible. (Fortunately our campus store carries Nutella!) There was a white woman with a French accent (there are tons of French ex-pats in the city), so I got excited to use my French and ask her about the Hindu temple. Turns out she didn't speak a word of French and just picked up the accent from living here. They had a home made artisanal shop attached so we shopped around the clothing, jewelry, handmade paper items, soaps, and incense.
From there we moseyed to a church--Notre Dame des anges-- which only resembled it's namesake by the two spaced towers. It was instead peach pastel colored and the interior was a pastel blue with stained glass. The disturbing thing was the group of young boys sweeping it out. They didn't look happy and I hope it wasn't child labor, since I know that is still a problem in this region.
We then went shopping because this city has tons of cute shops, and walked along the canal. (The canal is a sewage stream down the center of town.) And made our way to the hindu temple where a very sad and sick looking elephant with tons of gold bling and white paint took my rupees in his hairy and slimy nostril in exchange for a pat on my head as a blessing. We then had to shed our shoes to go in the temple itself. Hindu temples are full of images of many deities (often with many heads or limbs) and colors and incense and statues. Did you know Hinduism has 330 million deities? Can you tell I had time in the van to read the culture section in the guidebook?
The tough part was doing yoga outside at dusk not having been smart enough to remember bug spray. Here we are trying to do some meditative forms of yoga while I'm slapping and swatting away. Regardless, it was so relaxing to distance myself mentally from the car horns I could hear in the distance. We did some mantras, some breathing, some sun salutations and the like... I don't do yoga enough to appreciate the differences from the US but the girls who went that do it a lot found it unpleasantly different.
The guy leading the class never got my name, but called me "Indian" instead because apparently I could pass for a North Indian. He'd be like "Hey Indian, straighten those arms!" We finished off the night at a classy restaurant on--you guessed it--a rooftop, and then strolled along the Promenade that was closed to cars every evening. The sea breeze did wonders for dispersing mosquitos.
The following morning a friend Alex and I stumbled upon a cute, outdoor cafe and got French crepes--sweet and savory. It was incroyable!
Then we all boarded the bus to check out Auroraville which is this self-sufficient community near Pondicherry and has inhabitants from all over the world. They have this giant golden golf-ball looking dome that has a white room with a perfect crystal in the center for unadulterated meditation, but we were not allowed to go inside unless invited by The Mother. Oh yeah, it's kind of a cult with a divine being--The Mother-- and searching for divine truth. They also share everything, don't use money (then why were the pastries and gift shops so expensive?) and cook organically.
Me and another girl had called a PADI diving place ahead of time to squeeze in a dive in the Indian Ocean, and the guy on the phone said no problem, come by around 2. We got there at 1:57 to find that they never dive past 11am. Fail. You almost come to expect these types of things here. Instead we went shopping and I got a meditation bowl among many, many other things. En route back to the bus we saw a guy lying on the sidewalk who was clearly dead and there were flies eating his face. It was one of the more disturbing things I've ever seen and I don't know why no one was attending to it. In lighter news, the driver didn't show up to the meeting place, but somehow he was parked next to the shop I was in and when I knocked he woke up, ready for the drive home! We all wished we were based in Pondicherry instead of Vellore.
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