For all India’s oriental grandeur, the intrusion of the Western culture is inevitable, in one way or the other. Colonial intrusions may not be half as incredible as that of Pondicherry, a union territory in the state of Tamil Nadu.
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Where Gallic delights are the order of the day, Pondicherry is rife with colonial buildings dating back to the 18th century. Pondicherry, the city, is set in a fine grid of straight clean avenues where French institutions and private homes still stand. More than anything, Pondicherry is famous for the Aurobindo Ashram, one of the best in the world.
Otherwise, Pondicherry is not all about edifices crumbling away with time. Instead, Pondicherry is where life is forever young, as eternal as the beach. Incidentally, the beaches of Pondicherry are utter spectacles. One has to see the Plage Paradiso, a tropical stretch of Elysium. Nevertheless, paradise can also be found among the time-warped structures of colonial Pondicherry. At its center is the picture-perfect Government Park. |
Based on a tourist map of Pondicherry, The French are also responsible for conjuring beautiful gardens out of Pondicherry. Cases in point are the Botanical Gardens, which is the brainchild of one C.S. Perrotet in 1826.
Away from Pondicherry city lies Auroville, a community intentionally engineered as a social experiment where people live in peace in spite of caste, race or religion. Behold, what started as an experiment is now a thriving community.
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