A short trip down the eastern coast along the Gulf of Bengal and my eyesight is ready to experience a big grand surprise. I arrive in a city with a name that sounds like a chocolate brand; there is a promenade by the seafront (corniche, pardon!), wide clean boulevards; I spot some policemen wearing chic red kippis a la gendarmerie; The smell of croissant and baguette is de riguer… Pondycherry, that’s the name in cause, is a place like no other in the whole India. The ex-French colony has a Gallic air around, all of course self-imposed on a South Indian background. To complete this charmant environment there is a Hotel de Ville, the Tricoloure is on top of the French Cultural Center. With a very popular Ashram also, and no-taxes on alcohol beverages, makes Pondy a different place. The streets are always strolled by a few dozens of like-minded foreigners, majority studying yoga or meditation at this celebrated ashram called Sri Aurobindo. The ashram was founded in 1926, and a Frenchwoman known as The Mother had been engaged in delivering a synthesis of yoga and modern science. Sri Aurobindo passed away giving authority to The Mother who also passed away later, age 97 in the early 90’s.
But, the biggest project, the very interesting legacy she left, lies few kilometers out of Pondy. Called Auroville, this was a huge project in “human unity” – widely extended now encompasses around 80 rural settlements in an area of around 20 km with 1700 residents ( more than half being foreigners representing around 35 nationalities. No Romanians; I checked). It was called “an experiment of international living where people could live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, politics and nationalities”. Roger Anger, the French architect was nominated to design the place, the opening ceremony in ’68 was attented by the president of
India and representatives of 124 countries who poured the soil of their lands into an urn to symbolize universal oneness.
In the middle of the area there is Matrimandir, this bizarre structure looking like a huge golden golf ball with a science fiction sensation around. Inside there’s in display a solid crystal (possibly the largest of its kind in the world! )
-Facts and numbers are from Auroville Information Center and LP’s guide book to India, 2005 edition
