Notre Dame Des Anges, Puducherry

We are in Pondicherry, which is nowadays called Puducherry. The Portuguese were here, as were the French and British, who fought a few wars in the region, but trading civilisations such as the Chinese and Greeks were here centuries earlier. What is most evident today is the French influence, in the Colonial style. The French built some large Catholic Churches. We visited two, of which I went into one.

The day started with a visit to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, which seemed clean and well organised. Photography is not permitted, and visitors have to file through in silence. Some people knelt to worship at the flower-covered tomb of Sri Aurobindo, the founder, who died in 1950. I knelt down too and smelled the flowers. I don’t know much about Sri Aurobindo or ‘The Mother’ but I enjoyed the tranquility and wished I could have spent more time there. I bought a book on Integral Healing, which is part of the belief system of the founders. There are many businesses in the town associated with the ashram, such as their printing press, but the core followers in the town nowadays only number around three thousand.

Next stop was to a temple to Ganesh, and the museum of Puducherry. Photography was not permitted in either. I’d have liked to see some public worship and chanting in the temple, but we did glimpse people being allowed into the holy of holies. We then proceeded to a spot where the guide had arranged a fleet of bicycle rickshaws to take us around the old town. This was a quiet tour, in cavalcade, with occasional pauses to look at buildings. Our driver did not tell us much, but we did have a cmprehensive tour, including the Muslim part of the town, which has narrower streets, more brightly painted.

At the Catholic Church above, I was struck by the sight of people leaning against the painting for a few seconds to touch the brightly-coloured garment. A very demonstrative form of worship, quite unlike the version of Catholicism I was brought up with. The woman in my blip has just finished her session with the painting. Another woman came along seconds later, and did the same thing.

When our group dispersed, Elspeth and I and a couple called Cyd and Brian walked down to the sea. The sea! The sea! We could not bathe, but we paddled in it. and I enjoyed the strong undertow, and got quite wet as the tide came in. The sand is very red, like Thr sandstone that Glasgow is built of.

Walking along the promenade, Brian and I found a French cafe, so we stopped for patisserie and juices. (The coffee machine was broken. This seems a bit of a theme in India, at least in our hotels). The environment was cool and elegant.

Eventually we moved on and got a bit lost, and then found ourselves near FabIndia, which is an upmarket designer store for Westerners (I guess). I dragged us inside, and we had a bit of a trying on spree, resulting buying clothing, before returning to the hotel.

We had coffee in the lobby before retiring to cool down. After dinner, Elspeth and I played pool, which was terrible because an Indian woman kept filming our shots! I won in the end, but only because Elspeth potted the black. Tomorrow night will be our last night in India. Going back to Reality will be hard.