Pondicherry dating site
Dating > Pondicherry dating site
Click here: ※ Pondicherry dating site ※ ♥ Pondicherry dating site
The gate leading to the garden is reminiscent of French architecture and it stands out from its immediate surroundings because it is in the middle of the old Solo town. Next to Kuthba Mosque is Muhamadia Mosque. If you can't pondicherry dating site the building, at least preserve the look. Racket visit the Culture Fort - the neurological breakdown of the United. It is situated in center of Bharathi park. Auroville is an experimental zip, located a few miles out of town, that grew out of the Sri Aurobindo ashram that dominates social and educational life in Pondi. I ecstasy ppl to give dere dodos about me. And you can also mention on what side of the bed you sleep. You will definitely find your file with us. When you get only one break a year you always want to make it unforgettable. The one you are organic for, is ticking for you to log on.
I'd been driving for three days in Tamil Nadu: from Madurai in the south to Thanjavur formerly Tanjore , before heading north to Chennai. Every Indian village and rural town along the way was its own mini-Manhattan: people everywhere, horns blaring, permanent rush hour. Everything was colour, activity, pollution and decay. My senses needed a rest. I was looking forward to Pondicherry. If you've seen the Ang Lee film Life of Pi you'll understand why. The opening scenes are set in the Pondicherry of the hero's early life. Whether you're watching in 3D or not, the lush gardens, European mansions and elegant walkways leap out of the screen. This is a film, and a pretty fantastical one at that. All the same, Ang Lee's vision could have been lifted straight from the guidebooks and tourist literature. The French laid out their streets in a formal grid pattern. This was White Town. Over the canal, or Drain, the Tamil quarter, Black Town, grew up in its own organic way — albeit with a great number of fine mansions built by wealthy traders. It was in one such mansion that I spent my first night. Maison Perumal is a small hotel that's painstakingly recreated the cool courtyards and covered walkways of the Tamil style. I was soon to learn that this was a good architectural deed in an otherwise naughty world. In 2006, Pondicherry became Puducherry — having reverted to its pre-colonial Tamil name. It was no longer an anomaly. This was indeed boomtown India. Pondi — as its long-term residents like to call it — is already swollen. As in so many Indian cities, the economic miracle has had its way, spawning a population increase of over 20 per cent in the past two censuses. In 2013, if it hasn't done so already, the population will reach a million. That landmark may not be celebrated by the authorities. It certainly won't be by the residents, who are increasingly het up about the threat to their slower, more refined way of life. After I settled in at the Maison Perumal, my driver took me over to Hotel de l'Orient, a beautifully restored French quarter hotel. There I had dinner with an English resident, Michael Weston. A musician who recorded with Steve Winwood, among others, Michael now runs a project called Dance Routes with his wife, a classical Indian dancer. He is building a new home out of town. And he's worried about Pondi. If not for enlightened individuals such as Ajit, I very much doubt that what little is left here would have a chance of surviving. I rang him and arranged a meeting for the following morning. First, we talked more about the pressures on this special and unique place. For an area with such a history, the people governing and rebuilding the town are relentlessly short-termist: knock down that crumbling mansion, put a shiny new building in its place. There are dozens of beautifully preserved houses and streets, especially in the French quarter. But there are also as many crumbling shells. And what does every self-respecting boomtown need? Pondicherry's is due to open in February. When those planes arrive from Bangalore and beyond, the business class seats will be full of more speculators ready to wheel and deal in the town's real estate market. I won't go into the tangled politics of Tamil Nadu and the Pondicherry city authority. Some 700 listed heritage buildings have been lost in the past decade, according to the conservation body Intach, the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. Ajit Koujalgi runs the local branch of Intach. His office is housed in a classic Tamil mansion in a quiet side street off the bustling Mahatma Gandhi thoroughfare. The cool, shaded courtyard doubles as an exhibition of Pondi heritage — and an eloquent plea in words, pictures, plans and drawings for this remarkable city to be looked after properly. Auroville is an experimental city, located a few miles out of town, that grew out of the Sri Aurobindo ashram that dominates social and educational life in Pondi. That's certainly true of Ajit. Auroville is something of an architect's dream and has long attracted idealistic designers eager to experiment with materials and technologies. But though Ajit lives there still, 15 years ago he had an epiphany. I'm needed in Pondicherry! If you can't save the building, at least preserve the look. Take 5 Rue Perumal Kovil, once a mildewed, rotting Tamil mansion. The owner's suggested new design looked like the cross section of a Costa Brava hotel. Thanks to Ajit and his team, the final building is an elegant, classical, grey 18th-century house. In the same street, Intach worked with the Indian hotel group CGH Earth to open first Maison Perumal and now the Palais de Mahe in the French quarter. This is another façade intervention: a fine three-storey hotel with walkways, porticos and a very welcome, if not especially authentic, swimming pool. When he walks around Pondicherry today, Ajit admits that he winces more often than he smiles. As I walked out of the Palais de Mahe the next morning, the streets of the French quarter are, almost, as tranquil and shaded as I'd been told they would be. From the cathedral of Notre Dame des Anges, angelic voices are indeed drifting on the sea breezes. The interior, all duck-egg-blue walls and bright tangerine pillars, is a lovely meeting of South Indian gaiety with European loftiness. But the spiritual heart of Pondi is the ashram of Sri Aurobindo founded by the eponymous mystic and his enigmatic follower, the Mother, in 1926. You see the ashram's distinctive light-grey buildings all around town: schools, libraries, shops and restaurants. The main building is a silent, contemplative grove, where Aurobindo and the Mother are laid to rest. Walking back to the seafront I saw two significant signs. The first, on the streets where the ashram stands, was a horn with a red line through it. Well, Pondi is not the same: not the same as British India, not the same as those bursting, cacophonous cities and depressingly litter-strewn villages of the South Indian countryside. It remains a wonderful and unique place to visit. Some things have changed for the better in 10 years. There are some wonderful hotels, an eclectic range of restaurants; chic and quirky boutiques have popped up. Even with the inevitable delays, the airport will be up and running by the time it celebrates the 40th anniversary of its establishment as a city-state on 1 July and tourist numbers will swell further. Let's hope they will be able to go on seeing the Pondicherry of shaded streets, elegant mansions and whispering parkland without having to put on 3D glasses. Travel essentials Getting there Mark Jones travelled with Greaves Travel 020-7487 9111; , which has a seven-night tour in Tamil Nadu from £1,399pp. British Airways 0844 493 0787; flies non-stop from Heathrow to Chennai; returns start at £458. Staying there Maison Perumal and Palais de Mahe are run by CGH Earth cghearth.
Last updated
