pondicherry

Day 100 in India. It is a popular misconception that the British controlled the whole of India during the days of the British Raj. They didn't. There are some areas which have never been touched by the hand of British Rule such as Pondicherry, a small seaside town of 220,000 on the east coast just below Chennai. Pondicherry, recently renamed Puducherry (to sound more Tamil) and more informally known as 'Pondy,' was a colony of the French from the early eighteenth century and remained in French hands even after India became a Republic in August 1947 (it was finally handed back in the early 1950s).

The French certainly left their mark. The streets of the French quarter (which is more of a half if you ask me) are arranged on a grid pattern, and each of the roads has a French name. The local restaurants serve approximations of French food, and the local town hall is called 'Hotel De Ville.' French-style architecture abounds. It is rather surreal and unexpected when you arrive, but the shock is followed by pleasant surprise because the area is pretty, well ordered, and very green (almost every street is lined on either side with mature and thriving trees).

As with everywhere else in India, they don't like giving you change in Pondicherry no matter how close the money you pay with. Even if somebody charged you 1249 rupees for something and you gave them 1250, for example, they'd still irritably say: 'you haven't got the exact money have you?'

My bus up to Pondicherry turned out to be a nice air conditioned coach with comfortable reclining seats and the journey ran to time and without problems apart from, around 3am, when the driver hit a speed bump he hadn't noticed without slowing down (he was probably falling asleep like his passengers). This bounced me out of my seat and I head butted the window on my left with some force. The bang really hurt and warranted the emission of a profanity on my part. Tomorrow morning I'll catch another bus up to Chennai which will only take about three hours, and will hopefully not include a free concussion or turn into a bit of a pallava*.

I'm staying on the top floor at the Hotel Continental in Pondicherry. It is adequate although my room is very, very hot indeed. I'm not sure why. I have a television set with cable television and last night after a meal at 'Madam Santhe' I went back to my room and watched: 'Concert for Diana' on a channel called Starworld. Looking on the Internet just now I see that one British newspaper has said of the event, 'it was as if Marks and Spencer had organised a concert,' which about sums up my feelings on the matter. I was tired but hung on and on to hear Elton John sing (one of my most guilty pleasures). In summary: I liked watching Bryan Ferry and Rod Stewart, Status Quo made me laugh, and Ricky Gervais proved a bit of a disappointment.

Also to note: I have begun reading the final of my books for this trip: Milosevic by Adam LeBor. I've only read a couple of chapters. It's well written and it's good to think about something which has nothing to do with India even if the subject matter is a bit hard going and serious.

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* The Pallava kingdom was an ancient South Indian kingdom. They established their capital at Kanchipuram around the 4th century CE. They dominated the Telugu and northern parts of the Tamil region until the end of the 9th century, for about six hundred years. Throughout their reign they were in constant conflict with both Chalukyas of Badami in the north and the Tamil kingdoms of Chola and Pandyas in the south and were finally defeated by the Chola kings in the 8th century CE.