Puducherry - a pearl of the Eastern coast
- Shabbir Baldiwala
- Sep 10, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 6, 2024
A 3 day holiday is always difficult to plan since it’s neither as long as a vacation nor as short as a weekend getaway. Puducherry seemed to be a good bet, easily accessible from Chennai by road, not much travelling inside the city and when most of the country is reeling from monsoon rains, this city is relatively dry.
Please click on the hyperlinks to read more about the location, review and see more pics.
The Math of travel: Mumbai to Chennai and return (by air) - 2 hrs, approx cost 10k pp
Chennai to Puducherry - by road - 3 hrs, approx 3k per cab.
Stay: Our stay was booked at Club Mahindra,
which is 30 mins drive from the town. There are other options as well which probably may be closer to where the buzz is.
Commute and the city: A 2 wheeler is easily available on rent. Delivery of the vehicle is also provided at the hotel with a little added cost.
It is the best way to paint the town red. The promenade and its vicinity, the White town, has a lot of European styled cafés whose decor and ambience must be experienced to be believed. There are a lot of beaches along the same coast. They are named differently but there isn’t much to differentiate between them except the surroundings. They are clean and worthy of a dip. Liquor is cheap and easily available.
Auroville is a meditation ashram 30 mins away from Pondicherry. A trip to Pondy is incomplete without a visit to this place.
The Science of the weather: Sunrise and sunset are earlier than most cities. It gets pretty hot during the day. We were told to carry an umbrella for the occasional rain shower, but we didn’t realise that it would have been more useful for protection against the sun.
Itinerary:
| | | |
Day 1 | Mumbai - Chennai (Air) | Chennai - Pondi (Road) | Check-in at Hotel. Dip at a beach or swim in a pool |
Day 2 | Hop on to a boat to Paradise beach | Drive to White town for lunch | Explore the French town and take pics galore |
Day 3 | Drive down to Auroville | Lunch at a cafe at Auroville | Explore night life and cafes at French town |
Day 4 | Pondi - Chennai | Chennai - Mumbai | Relive the memories with your family. |
History, civics and geography of Puducherry
Also called ‘City of Dawn’ and nicknamed ‘Pondy’
The original name of the territory, Putucceri, is derived from the Tamil words putu (“new”) and ceri (“village”). The French corrupted this to Pondichéry (English: Pondicherry), by which it was called until its name was officially changed to Puducherry in 2006.
The city of Puducherry is divided into two parts by a canal- The French Quarter and the Tamil Quarter. There is a stark contrast between the two.
The Tamil quarter boasts of many temples with ornate gopurams depicting gods and demons.
Rangolis at the threshold of many houses and shops is a sight to behold. Also known as ‘Kōlam’, it is a daily ritual for women in Tamil Nadu to draw at the entrances. It is a symbol of auspiciousness and the designs vary daily, from a simple star pattern of opposing, interlocking triangles to highly complex labyrinthine designs. It is both fascinating and relaxing to watch the dexterity with which these intricate designs are created by just rice powder or chalk. As ants, birds and tiny insects feed on the rice flour, wind and people’s footsteps further disturb and eventually erase the kōlam; the cycle is repeated again the next morning. Kolam is drawn to welcome, honour and express gratitude to Goddesses Laxmi and Bhudevi and Gods Suryadevara and Ganesha and to banish evil. Kolam also shows the talent and ability of the woman as the proprietor of her household. It also displays the mathematical and artistic skills of the women.
The houses and basilicas in the French quarter sing the glory of the French days of yore.
The French came to the coromandel coast in the 1600s. They defeated the Sultan of Bijapur and set up their capital in Pondicherry. After being captured repeatedly by the Dutch and British and returned again to the French by treaties and negotiations, Pondicherry remained under French governance till 1954 when it became a Union Territory of India.
The White town is teeming with pastel coloured stucco houses, with steep rooftop and large windows.
These French houses usually have courtyard gardens, iron gates, and gravel pathways inside the house. Many of them have been converted into cafés. The varied themed decor of these cafés can sure lure you to do some cafe-hopping…
The Literature of French town cafes
Coromandel Cafe on Romain Rolland street
Its a Victorian styled cafe with beautiful chandeliers and comfortable sofas, chairs and tables and an old world charm. The courtyard has fancy wrought iron tables and chairs. Must try the Prawn pizza and Haloumi orange salad here.
Rendezvous Cafe and Restaurant on Suffren street
It’s a white stucco building with flowered balconies and has a roof top restaurant. A cool Vanilla Pinacotta dessert was a soothing respite from the afternoon heat.
Kulfi House on Dumas street
This small little place attracts tourists with the tagline ‘Selfie with a Kulfie’. It is customary to click a picture on the bench outside.
It has a variety of kulfis like gajar halwa kulfi, basundi kulfi, guava kulfi. One must try the chocolate pani puri too.
The main theme of this cafe is the homely feel that it gives. Clearly a house is converted into a cafe. There are tables in the courtyard with a colourful hand rickshaw surrounded by plants,
The verandah has a sofa, chairs and a table. The room next door is a library and there are two more rooms beyond and in each room there are tables where food is served.
The carrot cake, mushroom tart, focaccia bread sandwich are few items worthy trying here.
A very colourful cafe with beautiful wall art and a happy vibe.
Love lemon kombucha is a fermented tea drink of Chinese origin.
Happiness charger is a mocktail of coconut water and basil.
It has 2 outlets- one in the French quarter and the other in Auroville.
We tried the sour dough greens sandwich, chocolate croissant and chocolate walnut cookie.
Each of these was freshly baked and melted in the mouth.
The Language of the beaches
The Paradise beach
A 1/2 an hour boat ride on the Chunambar river takes you to Paradise beach. A clean beach with many thatched gazebos for shade.
The first motor boat leaves at 9.30am and the last returns at 4pm. A 25-30 min ride, spend time at the beach, with adventure activities and return by boat to the mainland. There is also a direct way to reach the beach by road.
The Promenade
A long stretch of walkable road lined by white washed villas on one side and the waves of the Bay of Bengal on the other. The Gandhi statue flanked by tall pillars is a photo worthy monument.
No vehicles are allowed on this road. They can be parked in the parallel and cross lanes adjoining the Promenade.
Bharathi park is next to it.
A walk around it for a couple of pics may be good.
A Craft bazar close by showcases some fine handicraft products that may possibly be worthy of your living room display.
The Rock beach
It is a rocky beach on either side of the Promenade beach.
The Marina beach
It is another popular beach to visit. It was never a part of the plan and was just incidentally discovered. It has a nice food court on the opposite side. The customary I LOVE PONDY selfie can be clicked here.
The Serenity beach
This is just another beach along the coast of Pondicherry. Relatively close to Auroville, it may be given a skip. Many Ganesh visarjans were taking place here and made it very crowded.
The Philosophy of Auroville and Aurobindo ashram
Auroville has its origins in the French language, "Aurore" meaning dawn and "Ville" meaning village/city.
The famous Golden globe of The Matrimandir is one of the tourist attractions close to Pondicherry. A short trek from Auroville Visitors Centre to the Viewing gallery takes us to the green lawns, at the centre of which is the Divine Orb.
En route, we learn the philosophy of Auroville and the history of the establishment.
People from 124 countries including Indians from 23 different states came together with some of their native soil from their homelands and deposited it in a marble urn here.
The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity and spiritual evolution through unity. This philosophy is based on Sri Aurobindo’s teachings, and his disciple Mirra Alfassa was instrumental in establishing Auroville.
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