NY Times Article About Pondicherry

capt_mahajan

So do I. Prefer the promenade part of Pondicherry, or Puduchery now, over Mammalapuram (now, was Mahabalipuram ) anyday.

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Nick-H

The best thing in Pondicherry is the huge indoor market. It was called 'Big Market' on the map we got from the hotel, and that is no understatement! I was delighted to find a stall selling all different varieties of string, even

You do have to hold your breath while passing through the fish section, though.

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atala

The "non-Indian population" in Auroville as well as the Indians officially living as Aurovillians there are the people I referred to.

http://www.auroville.org/av_brief.htm

What is called Auroville as a township consists of around 150 smaller or larger settlements in a vast area of land, interspersed with villages and agricultural as well as waste land. Some of these settlements which are called "communities" do have a more or less communal structure, but many of them remain individualized to a high degree. You find everything from thatched bamboo huts to luxury mansions, according to how much the original builder could afford. A large number of European and Indian architects have built their dream-houses their.
http://www.auroville.org/thecity/architecture.htm

A very limited number of communities actually do live a communal life-style worthy to call a "commune". One finds all kinds of architectural, social and ecological experiments present there at different places. A lot of exceptional work is being done by enterprising individuals, in projects of all kinds.

As an example let's look at their afforestation project that was funded by the European Union with 450'000 Euros (total project cost 560'000 Euros, which was close to a million US Dollars, depending on the year one takes for the exchange rate). The project included the cooperation of some of the leading people in the field in India, and included areas distant to Auroville itself.
details here:
http://www.auroville.org/journals&me...%20project.htm

The leading figure in this project was Joss, an Australian Aurovillian, who started out 20 years ago with a simple seed conservation program which brought about an outstanding institution in his community, http://www.pitchandikulamforest.org/...nt/view/23/31/

He collected the seeds from plants, shrubs and trees from still existing rain forests in India, studied them and harvests them regularly for conservation, as ecological and industrial changes in the modernization process threaten to make them extinct.

There are many others with different projects, some intended to raise funds with production units, including the production of fashion that sells in Paris and New York, or more localized empowerment projects in the line of handicrafts and so on.

To really find out what Auroville is, and what individual people are doing there, you require at least a year. Most guests that go there for a few months are excited about what they experience and see. Thousands of tourists go there between December to March. A few stay as long term guests and work in some project. It is relatively expensive though to live there as a guest. You need a minimum of 4-500 Rupees a day to live there.

You need to go into the often remote communities, those settlements mentioned, in a maze of roads and paths, to meet the people. That is why many months are required. Auroville is now 40 years old. Most old Aurovillians are tired of the same questions every year, with every new guest finding them. That is why they often have a rather morose persona, because living in Auroville is not only fun, but comes along with its own suffering too. The ones you find smiling on the often rough and difficult roads, they are guests like you.

Over all, Auroville is worth an in-depth visit. Many remarkable individuals live and work there. The ideological side behind it is a bit strange and would make it difficult for me to decide to want to live there long-term. But I do not need to like to live in the Taj Mahal (I do not like the ideology behind the Taj either), to admire its architecture and consider it worth a visit. At least Auroville is alive, while the Taj is a dead structure. The Government of Tamil Nadu, by the way, promotes the central structure of Auroville, the Matrimandir, as the Taj Mahal of the South.

http://www.auroville.org/thecity/mat...ir/mm_main.htm

brishti

thanks atala.
much appreciated the trouble you took getting the info, thanks.


:brishti

Scandojazzbuff

Yes, the promenade. This was the best part of Pondi beside the Hotel De L'Orient, plus the lovely park. Mamalla is funkier and wilder. It would be nice to have a promenade there. Because of my interest in old South Indian architecture and culture, Mamalla is much more interesting to me. If you want to shop, sip iced coffee, take a stroll in a starched linen shirt and straw hat, nothing wrong with Pondi.

Nick-H

Snap!

Where-ever I go I'll wander around the shops, I like shopping, but, apart from alcohol and expensive gifts, there's not really anything in Pondy for a chennai-ite. Apart from string, of course

atala

There are lots of nice gift and antique shops now in the streets parallel to Goubert Avenue (the beach promenade), on the Park Guesthouse side. And a Chennai-ite certainly appreciates the inhalation of less or no fumes there, isn't it?

Another good thing is you get lots of good green Coconuts there, at a reasonable rate (at this time 5 or 6 Rupees). I like the kind in the slippery but hard enough egg-white stage. It is always an art to train the coconut wallah to give me always the right kind, without him tricking me into buying a second one because he chose first one that did not meet my standards of preference.

My best place is on MG Road. (For newcomers: MG stands for Mahatma Gandhi, a street-name generally to be found in any Indian city, and generally located in the centre of town.)

all-one-heart

Hi Atala and Nick-H,
Continuing on my reflexions and questions about the understandable Aurovillian philosophical alergy to religions, what about namasankirtanas? Aren't there places in Auroville, Atala, where people can and do chant? And what about in Pondy?

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Nick-H

Atala is very familiar with Auroville; I am sure he will answer --- I know nothing about it at all. I know more about shops than ashrams!

Another note on Pondy being foreign to a brit: I find the French street names unpronounceable. Whilst that is not surprising, as I don't speak the language, what is funny, and frustrating sometimes too, is that my Tamil-speaking wife cannot communicate them to Tamil-speaking auto drivers!

brishti

lost in translation?


:brishti

Radjesh

Thats because these french names have mixed with the local tongue and pondicherrians pronounce them with this mix. For outsiders even if they pronounce the original name properly, they might have difficulty in conveying the same to taxi/ auto wallah

Nick-H

Framil? Tamench?



We'll have to contact you for some hints before going again

Radjesh

You are most welcome

Framil is more pleasing to the ear...

atala

I know of only one person in one community who actually invited someone to play a harmonium and sing some bhajans once or a few times, and he did that inviting anyone to join. Since Aurovillians essentially are on a Mother-trip (considering the founding person called "Mother" an incarnation of the various aspects of shakti, or rather: she supposedly manifested different aspects at different times in her life), songs to some mother-goddess may be justifiable in some people's understanding there. But it certainly is not a regular practice. It is not politically correct there to have a guru, any guru, either.

Another aspect would be that communities in general are noise-sensitive. Namsankirtan as is traditionally done in India would easily count as an unwanted noise infringement. You know, most houses there do not have glass windows, so you hear everything easily. Especially if you played kartals along, and Mrdanga.

In Pondy I have witnessed once quite some kirtan at a temple compound. A Vaishnava invited some youths and sang and joyfully danced with them on several evenings in succession. A few weeks ago i heard a larger kirtan gathering going on from an upstairs appartment on MG road, near but opposite to the large temples there. So you would have to find such events for yourself. If you like I can ask someone in Auroville about more info regarding this.

At times Hare Krishnas from Iskcon Chennai might come to Pondy if invited. I doubt whether they have a continuous center in Pondy itself.

reneeautumn

I absolutely love Pondicherry! Somehow it has wound up being my first stop since I landed in Mumbai (via flight to Chennai). I'm grateful for the insanely long wait lists to train it to Goa that enabled me to be sitting in Pondi today.