2024-03-15 Southern India: Mar 20 – Pondicherry and Auroville

Some sites along the route to Tanjore.

We stopped at a roadside stand to try some ice apples. These black pods/seeds are from the Asian palmyra palm, also called the sugar palm tree. It is called ice apple because it acts as a coolant in the hot summers. It is encased in a coconut-type fruit and the pods/shells hacked open/peeled with a large knife and then soft, gelatinous, translucent fruit dug out. We tried it. Even the skin encasing the fruit was soft enough to be edible. It was an interesting experience. The taste was a bit bland but ok.

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Video of Ice Apple

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We were so busy sampling that we forgot to take a photo of the ice apples. So went online and found one to include.

This little calf was munching on the ice apple scraps.

We are still pretty close to the coast, and we drove by salt flats with lots of salt drying in the open air.

There were the usual little local temples along the route.

Our first real tour stop was Auroville. This is a commune whose purpose is “…to realize human unity”. There are about 2500 residents. The original plan was for a community of 50,000 so they are a bit short on the planned population.

We really didn’t see much of the community other than the amphitheater and the Matrimandir. A model of the Matrimandir that was in the visitor's center.

The Matrimandir is a huge gold sphere conceived as “a symbol of the Divine’s answer to man’s aspiration for perfection. It is a silence zone and is open only to residents of Auroville. We took a shuttle up to the viewing site. They are still in the process of building the lake that is to surround the Matrimandir.

The Banyon tree at Auroville.

Some photos from our walk.

We had lunch at the restaurant there at the visitor’s center and then wandered the shops a bit. Then it was on the Pondicherry. Pondicherry was formerly under control of the French so there is a French Quarter that we wandered around a bit.

We visited the Basilica of Sacred Heart of Jesus…

and also visited a hand-made paper operation. No photos were allowed. The operation is by hand so they are limited in their output.

We stopped by a park to see the Aayi Mandapam, a memorial to a court dancer.

Pondicherry was formerly under control of the French and we are staying in the French Quarter. The architecture here certainly looks French and many of the streets still retain their French names. The area was fairly quiet, not much traffic so we had the streets pretty much to ourselves.