Pondichéry mon amour !

Written by : Srinath Balachandran

On a breezy February morning a month ago I was unable to sleep and I decided to get out of bed and take a walk and see Pondy very early in the morning (around 02.30AM)…. Trust me it was really good… For one, “Peaceful Pondicherry” as the Pondicherry Tourism Department tags the city can probably be felt only during those early hours…

It is something like “Sound of Silence” – Most of the streets well lit up and spotlessly clean…. Every parallel street has a team of about 6 to 8 men and women dressed in navy blue cleaning the streets to keep Pondicherry CLEAN!! These people do such a lovely thing… Really Hats of to them….

Pondicherry “BIG MARKET” at about 3ish in the morning gets ready to get the fresh supplies and it’s an interesting sight to watch the people there bargain for all the supplies that come from the farms and other cities. This is one of the few places that is a bit noisy with a couple of trucks parked in the middle of the road. The “Uzhavar Sandhai” (Farmers Market) near the botanical garden is another place that gets ready for the early morning sales of fresh vegetables and fruits – The price here is stunningly less in comparison to the market – And you find people rarely bargaining here..

I was also surprised to see the police patrolling around the city regularly.. (I was stopped by one of them and was asked what I was doing so early and I had to show them an identity card and told them I was just trying to photograph Pondicherry and they were pretty cool about it…)

The news paper delivery trucks from places like Chennai delivering bundles of them in a couple of places is also something… Watching the speed in which the people organize the dailies for door deliveries are also interesting. It is quite impressive to watch them at work.

Gearing up for a faster pace, I decided to walk near the beach – And believe me, Here at the beach there are quite a few people up and already jogging and walking fast at around 4ish… The funny thing is to watch some of them walking and talking loudly forgetting there are others who try to plan their day ahead.

Diagonally across Hotel Anandha Inn is a small milk store that is open 24 hours and a cup of Hot Milk there is really heavenly... For five rupees it is really superb…. Luckily for me, it was quite breezy and I just enjoyed the entire tour...