January 2013

Pondicherry and Auroville, SE India

I took a 3 hour bus from Thiru to Pondacherry.  I got a very special seat.  It was in the windshield.  I had to squish myself up against the glass so the bus drive could see out of the side rear view mirror.  It was 5am and the next bus didn't leave until 6:30am.  The assistant told me to sit down and just relax.  I said a prayer.  I made it.

I think the worst thing about India is the traffic.  Crossing the sreet is taking a chance with fate.  Last nice a taxi driver paved a path for me to cross a normal busy street.  Two lanes becomes 6 lanes of traffic, that is to say that one regular lane becomes room for 4 motor bikes unless a bus is coming in the other direction.  That bus can come into your lane and honk at you to move out of its way.  It really is crazy.  It requires a moped or bicycle to get around where I am now.  I've seen so many bloodied arms from people getting thrown off their mopeds. A friend of a friend lost her leg.  I wish I had a helmet and a leather jacket but there are none.  And they tell me the south is the easy part of India.

Pondicherry was a French town since the 1600's up until 1963 when it became a Union territory.  It was several years after India got its independence until it was united with India.  Unlike the rest of India, the town has cute, neat, colorful buildings left from the French occupation.   When foreigners come here, they can rest a little because it seems a little familiar.  Somehow it feels less chaotic than other Indian cities and villages.

Children in uniforms on their way to school.  Tuk tuks, cars, dogs, people, mopeds and sauntering cows, and cow manure fill the streets.  There were two cows here. The other is in front the the girl on the right.

The drawings are called Kolams using powdered white stone in the South of India.  This one will be white. It is drawn by female Hindus in front of their houses every morning.  They used to be made with course rice flour so that the ants don't have to walk so far for a meal. It is seen as a daily tribute to harmonious co-existence .  It is a welcoming to their home and also welcoming the Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of prosperity.

Auroville - An Experiment in Human Unity

Auroville is a special, international city just outside of Pondacherry.   It started in 1968 with a vision from Sri Aurobindo and The Mother with an invitation to all people of goodwill to come and settle here.  Nothing would belong to anyone and everyone would live in harmony.  It was envisioned as a place for 50,000 inhabitants.  It currently has only 2,000 people living here. Most people visit in January and February because other months are too hot.  

It has a center piece of a golden 'golf ball' that is used for meditation.  I quite like the space.  You wear white socks to enter the white carpeted winding staircase that goes around the inside of the ball up to an upper white floor with 12 pillars around a room and a large crystal in the center for meditation.  As a non-resident, we are given 40 minutes a day to enjoy and meditate in the space 6 days a week.

There are also many restaurants, small manufacturing shops making things like essence oils, clothing, organic farms, bakeries, etc.  They are very spread out so you really need a moped to get around.  Hence the danger in  this area getting from one place to another.  I don't go out at night because it is intimidating enough during the day when you can see the truck coming within inches of you.  At night you don't know if those 2 headlights are a truck or two motor cycles.  And you don't want to be injured because that would make travel too difficult.  I won't see much of India that way.

This is the hut where I'm staying with 3 weeks.  It's one of the origials from 1968.  For 500 rupees a day, it includes my meals of Indian food and a osquito net.  I rent a moped for $1 a day.  I'm getting tired of rice ever day so I make muesli in the morning and don't eat at 7pm because most everyone goes to bed at 10pm.  That is common throughout India so far.

The dining room with people who are curently from Spain, Russia, Italy, India, France, and myself.  There aren't many people here from the USA.  Europe is a lot closer to India.

It very common for businesses  to have bowls of water with flower 

petals arranged in it.  They are very peaceful to look at.

My Italian friends at a restaurant that serves Sunday buffet.

A modern restaurant building from the early 80's.

Kids play together from all nationalities.  English is the common language and they have an American accent.  That surprised me because we are closer to Australia and Europe than to the USA.

My Italian friend and partner in crime. 

Since Hindus usually don't drink alcohol, I hand the hankering for a beer which is not easily available.  So I called a taxi cab who took me to the next village (I would never drive my moped unless I dont want to live very long) where there were Muslims stores who sold alcohol.  This was a store but when you say the word 'bar', people usually lower their voices to a whisper.  Now I know what prohibition was like!  Hindus tell me that they occasionally drink a beer for a special occasion only. My taxi driver wanted to be sure I was having 2 friends over so we would all drink a bottle each.  I didnt tell him 2 were for me. He also went up to the store window and ordered them for me because women don't buy alcohol.  Heaven forbid!

The meditation center and heart of Auroville - Matramandir, which means Mother temple.  This is a 20 minute moped ride from my hut, or 7 harrowing km.  Around the ball are 12 buildings (petals) with a different colored meditation space in each one.

A petal room in orange.

The 70 cm or 28" diameter crystal is always lit either with 

the sun or a ring of lights around it.

The all white room with 12 pillars.  It's a nice space.

The little temple across the street.  There seems to be one in every 200 meters.

 This is my favorite yet. The god has killed the bad goddness and is ripping 

her intestines out.  He's holding a man with a bloody cut above his navel.  

A local person told me maybe he took the bad things about of the woman.

Maybe more than the bad.  She's dead.

A mystery god.  I asked several people and they don't know what these gods are or their history. To most people, it's just a sacred temple to worship in. It sort of looks like a cartoon character.  I have to say that the temple music that is blaring from loud speakers every morning is a little over whelming.  Yesterday, because of the holiday, it was 5:15am rather than the usual 6:15am  and played throughout most of the day.  It's sort of whiny music.  A little is fine, but after a while...  Even my Ipod won't drown it out.  To make it more challenging, we are in the middle of two temples so we get different music from two directions.  It reminds you that you're not home.

The beach is 1/2 mile away.  That sounds pleasant enough but I almost got killed crossing the street to get there on my moped with my friend.  She's a better driver than I am.

We also got flashed by an Indian man.  He knew we were going to walk back the same way and he was ready for us displaying all.  I was told they always wear underwear beneath those skirts. He must have forgot to put his on that day.

Two hand painted boats.

The colorful fishing boats in a row.

The engines with the long shafts.

Men repairing their nets on a Sunday afternoon. The nets are made of fine plastic.  
Rather than natural fiber, it would seem almost impossible to repair but apparently not.

I've never seen green shells before.  I didn't know they existed.

Now I realize why Christmas was not such a big deal here. Most people a bought big star and hung it.  New Years was merely fireworks and a lot of noise from the fire crackers.  No drinking because it's against the Hindu religion.  For  Muslims celebrate Ramadan in July.  Hindus in the south of India celebrate Pongal in mid January.  So Pongal is the big Hindu holiday celebration. 

It is a four day celebration.   The first day, they traditionally burn their old clothes at 10am.  I never saw any clothes on the little burning piles.  I think this was just to 'burn out the old'.  The next day, most people had on a new outfit.  They were so happy in their new dress or shirt.  They also cook a special rice and sambah dish called Pongal in their house. (To be honest, it didn't taste much different than their usual rice and sambah.  The rice is a sticky rice rather than the usual basmati type.) The following day they cook Pongal near the temple so the women have to carry all their cooking utensils and fire with them to cook Pongal near the temple.  And finally, there is a unique celebration in each village.   Our local village has a cow race.  It was sort of like 'running of the bulls' in Spain but on a much smaller scale.  And the bulls weren't quite as aggressive.  But the bulls did get out of hand sometimes. They were not happy participants.

Pongal 4 day festival in mid January.

Cooking pongal near the temple with her daughter.

 A neighbor on her way to cook near the temple with 
complete portable kitchen and firewood.

 The bulls need to be washed and decorated the day before the race.  
They did not appreciate the bath.

The lake that suffices for bull washing with one of
 many, many temples in the background.

 Wagon rides for children went on for 2 days.  The adults got a ride on the last day.

Kids screaming with excitement on their holiday rides went on until after dark.

 This will give you an idea of how big these temple gods are.  
Patricia and I went riding in search of bull washing.  

 I was really liking some of these artistic and unusual gods.  

This is a blue, female monkey god. 

 The morning of the bull race.  I think they were saying,
 'Do we have to go through this again?' 

 There were many adornment of bananas.  When the bulls were all 
together right before the race, the bananas became  projectiles for 
all the the other handlers and the spectators too.  

 Lots of bananas to get flung everywhere.  We watched for incoming bananas. 
Patricia got banana-ed.

 This was paraded around meaning the race was going to begin.

The guys were pouring color over each other which is why many people appear violet.  A canon shot and they were off.  Patricia and I made our exit while there weren't too many cars on the road because I wanted to try a raw food restaurant down the road.  My first.  As we walked through this area to hop on our mopeds, you can just imagine what the ground looked like with all those scared bulls.  Yuk!

I asked a Hindu cab driver about eating meat.  I asked if cows were really gods, and he told me, yes they are.  They would never eat a cow.  Well, are chickens gods too?  He said, yes, chicken are gods but they eat them on occasion, not often.  They rarely eat eggs.  Then I asked, well then, are goats gods too?  Then he really laughed.  Of course not!  But we don't eat them much.  Hindus are very happy with their vegetarian diet with milk thrown in for their chai tea every morning.

Almost three weeks have passed since I came to Auroville.  I like it enough that I would consider coming back every year in December to February.  The people are very interesting, there are many things to do,  and there is a lot of volunteering to sign up for to keep things interesting.  I'll make note of it.