Day 29: Pondicherry

We stopped for a few hours in Pondicherry, a former French colony with street names in both Tamil and French. We visited a paper making outlet of the Sri Aurobindo ashram. It was a good place to buy paper-related craft souvenirs. Karen mentioned that she makes paper at home too. That seems like a cool hobby because you can make nice notebooks etc.

The next stop was a Gandhi statue next to the sea. It commemorates Gandhi's salt march when he marched more than 200 km to make salt by the coast in protest against the British salt tax.

Salt-making by the coast

Gandhi statue at Pondicherry

We walked on to the Ganesh temple and learnt a little about how this clever elephant-faced god of luck is worshipped. Men would tug on their ears and squat up and down 3 times; this action is meant to activate the brain cells. There was a temple elephant that gives blessings to devotees. Calf elephants can only fend for themselves when they are 10 years and above. So if they are orphaned when they are younger than 10, they get rescued and trained as a temple elephant. They are typically not reintegrated into the wild.

A temple elephant at a Ganesh temple

Sri Aurobindo's ashram was busy but quiet and we sat and enjoyed the peace for a while. Sri Aurobindo was also a freedom fighter. After his death, a French woman known only as the Mother ran the place. The bookshop is filled with books by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

Sri Aurobindo Ashram

Our final stop was at the Hot Breads bakery - yummy savoury and sweet breads and pastries.

The drive to Madurai was long and took around 6 hours but the roads were pretty good and Babu was a good, safe driver. We passed by paddy fields and villages. I can imagine pottering down the village lanes on a scooter with the wind in my hair.

The Star Residency hotel we stayed at in Madurai was the classiest hotel I've stayed in India so far. We had dinner at the rooftop restaurant with a view and a big screen. The tandoori chicken drumsticks I had was extraordinarily good.