MY HOME TOWN - PONDICHERRY
Pondicherry(because of some political drama it got re-named as 'Puducherry') is the 'collective' name of erstwhile French possessions in India.
The French relinquished their control and handed over the possessions to India upon a request from Indian government in its efforts to retrieve all foreign possessions enclaved in her geographical area. French government requested
India to preserve French culture and language. This solemn commitment was carried out by India and to give effect to that the enclaves were not merged with the states surrounding them, but maintained as a Union territory to
preserve that identity.
Mean while Sri Aurobindo Ghose (had he not been a Bengali, he would be called 'Aravinda' Ghosh), a great freedom fighter fighting the British rulers in India escaped from British India to take refuge in Pondicherry. He felt that
revival of spiritual heritage and its awareness in India is needed, along with 'independence' seeking efforts. He started an 'Ashram' (spiritual sanctuary) the running of which he shared with his French disciple who came to be
known as the 'mother'.
The territory comprise of 4 shore enclaves. Pondicherry town and its environs, and 'Karaikal' town with its environs 100miles to south are embedded in Tamilnadu and their Tamil-speaking population is one with Tamilnadu. 'Yanam' on
the same East (Coromandal) coast embedded in Andhra Pradesh state and 'Mahe' on West (Malabar) coast embedded in Kerala state completes the picture of the Union territory.The last pair each 400 miles away are tiny villages, with
the populations contiguous, linguistically and otherwise with surrounding states. These details are essential and often ignored in discussions of this kind by Indians who have scant regard for geographyand history and are crude
with no patience for nuances.
Being a seperate entity the Union territory (UT) retained its voice. But it needs to be reminded that it includes Telugu and Malayalam speaking areas with different environs and problems from Pondicherry. Pondicherry, with its
lion's share of area and population took full advantage of the liberal federal concessions in the matter of industries.
It has established a reputation amongst Indians for its spiritual environs in the shape of Ashram. Many international devotees took up residence there and doing good work for their spiritual community, unmolested by government
procedures and controls. It has become a place of pilgrimage and spiritual (as different from religious) tourism. These are the advantages of living in Pondicherry.
