Pondicherry & Auroville

On July 1, to celebrate Canada Day and our day off, some of the guys from the office and I went to Pondicherry for the day. It is roughly 1.5 hours south of Chennai, on the east coast. Pondicherry (also known as Puducherry) is a former French colony that was transferred to Indian administration in 1954, but retains special status as a union territory. It has its own legislative assembly, maintains French as one of its official languages, and has a favorable tax structure for those seeking cool refreshment on a hot day ;-)

Our first stop however was the community of Auroville. Auroville was created in 1968 and describes itself this way: "Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity."

At the centre of the community is a golden globe known as the Matrimandir, or Temple of the Mother. The temple and the surrounding grounds are intended to be a place of quiet meditation.

The grounds are lush and beautiful, all the more remarkable because when the community started, the area was mostly barren. Careful stewardship of the land has transformed it into a green oasis that includes many trees, including this magnificent banyan tree.

A solar farm helps the town lower its dependence on other forms of energy.


After Auroville, we continued on to Pondicherry for a bite to eat, cool refreshment and photos by the ocean.

To round out the trip, we stopped at a marina where we rented paddleboats and enjoyed hanging out on the water. After a great day we headed back to Chennai.