After a wild ride from Munnar, down the near vertical drop from the Western Ghats to the plains at Madurai, followed by an overnight train ride, and another wild ride into Pondicherry, we arrived at the JP Residency. Unfortunately, because of the "crap shoot" the selection of accomodation is, we are on the side of one of the busiest roads in India with continuous horns sounding all day and night. It is also worth your life to try to cross the road! It is also far away from the best part of town. Then we found out that the wifi doesn't work. After a bad first day, things looked up as we found a good place for breakfast, with wifi, and took a rickshaw tour.
Pondicherry is the left over of the French presence in India and the area by the beach has a distinct French colonial feel, including the French Consulate. The whole town seems to be associated with and ashram devoted to 2 dead people, one an Indian who seemed to retire from life after a short jail sentence for sedition back in the early 1900s. Then his wife (?) a French woman fabricated a myth that made him and her quasi-holy. We visited what appear to be a community started by her called Auroville which says that it follows many of the principles of the 1960s intentional communities, which Joy and I also believe in. Unfortunately, there is no sign of the actual community, but merely generalized statements of it's existence and achievements, many of which seem to just be use of existing technology. There is also a massive gold dome which seems to have little purpose other than to glorify the founders. One of the principles is the denial of religion, but everything seems to indicate that that is what has been created.
Anyway, our stay in Pondicherry has been much more interesting that we expected from the beginning. Today we visited the Botanical Gardens and met a class of school kids. Now they all have Canada or NS pins thanks to our local MP and MLA. I also gave the teacher a selection of Canadian coins. They were great kids and a lot of fun.
Tomorrow we get a car to Chennai (formerly Madras) for an overnight and catch the train the next morning for Bhusanewar (actually we are staying on the coast at Puri, nearby).
Jim
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