25TH JAN. Thursday. Pondicherry lunchtime jaunt

We'd asked Joshy to pick us up from our hotel at 11am to give us a quick tour of the town in his air-conditioned car as by then it was uncomfortably hot for walking.

First stop was a Catholic Church and very beautiful it was too.   There was some decoration/restoration taking place but its obvious there's no expense spared here.   Joshy told us that this church has its own TV station which, no doubt, generates income to help with its upkeep.    The interior was stunning with light flooding in through the (Belgian) stained glass windows - photos don't do it justice.      There were lots of people there enjoying some quiet prayer time so I was very circumspect with the photography. 

'touching up' the paintwork - note ... no scaffolding/ropes or safety gear worn here.   You can see from the previous picture how high up these 2 guys were working.

The interior was beautiful

As well as its own TV station, the church has its own body collection service!

Then we stopped off at a  hand-made paper plant.   It was a small business and had an information room with step-by-step paper processing pictures - ordinary paper and felted paper.   After that we just followed signs to the various sheds housing the equipment and 'got on with it'.    Nobody stopped us entering machine rooms or working environments

'No Photography' signs everywhere .... but I managed a sneaky few pics in places where the management weren't visible.

The paper is made from old rags, leaves and recycled paper - this is one of the raw material storage areas

This was the felted paper production area.   They create the paper sheets by hand from mush on a very fine sieve.  Its lifted out of tanks of water and dried momentarily, turned out  and covered with a sheet of felt.   The next layer is ordinary paper and so on, alternating felt and paper .... the stack is then put into a hydraulic press which squeezes out the water

I persuaded these guys to let me take a couple of quick pics (no flash to give the game away)

These ladies were operating the machinery which chopped up rags to go into the paper-making process.   They had their mouths covered with scarves which I guess is probably as efficient as a commercial mask but it was a dusty room

Again, they were OK with me taking a sneaky pic

But in this room (the most interesting one) the boss lady was adamant, no photos to be taken.   Eventually, she agreed I could take a photo from outside the room which was quite a concession. 

This room held water tanks on which operatives floated oil paints and swished the colour round by fanning it with a sheet of paper.   When happy with the 'design' they dropped plain sheets of hand-made paper onto the surface for a couple of minutes then whisked them out and pegged them out to dry.

You can just see the side of the first water tank on the right of this photo

The sheet she is holding in her hand isn't particularly pretty  but there were some truly amazing papers/patterns drying on the lines.

We bought a few little home-made paper cards and bags .... I would have liked to take home some of the larger sheets of patterned paper - they were very beautiful but I don't think they would have survived the journey without crushing.


and then on to another temple .... this was stunning inside but, sadly, no photos were allowed.   Its one of the temples that serve food to hoardes of devotees (ticket holder only) but we weren't privy to that.
We could see inside the more 'private' areas of the temple and they were just gorgeous, lots of gold and bright colours.    We had to content ourselves with taking photos outside and having a quick walk around inside.    I think this must be a regular tourist coach stop judging by the number of hawkers and beggars that hassled us.   Its very annoying as we try so hard to be polite but end up shouting at the more persistent ones, especially the ones that grab and poke (usually women with young babies asking for money).

Some pics around the outside of the temple area (this one devoted to Ganesha, the elephant god)

Painted ceiling under one of the outside arches

Shops

Joshy wanted us to see one more temple and so we parked up.   David promptly disappeared across the road towards a group of ladies reclining on the pavement.     Within 90 seconds he was back with tail firmly between legs saying 'they're not ladies' ....

One of the 'women' trailed us up the road and Joshy had a chat with 'her'.     Seems they are men and they wanted gifts from us.   

We managed to lose 'her' temporarily but when we got to the temple we found it was closed between 2 and 4pm so headed back to the car.     Some of the 'ladies' had moved on but 4 were still there so I thought 'what the hell' and we went to have a chat and take their photos (in return for a small cash donation).  David also took some photos but they seemed happier posing for me ... perhaps something to do with them identifying more with females than males ...

Until they spoke, I would have found it very hard to guess they were male - apart from having slightly large hands/feet.   They all had deep voices which was what had alarmed David when he first met them.      When I showed them the photos I'd taken they all said 'very handsome' rather than 'very pretty' so ... I'm not really sure where they stand on the 'gender' scale but they were nice enough and harmless.    Each to their own of course.

Then it was back to our hotel for a couple of hours rest and relaxation (and catching up on Blogs).

Pondicherry is a strange place ... India, and yet not India.     Its been a nice place to chill for a couple of days and we like this hotel and our quirky room and little balcony.    We spend most of the afternoon sitting here watching the world go by and listening to the incessant cawing of the crows

In all other parts of India we've notice the noise of the parakeets more than any other bird.   Here its the crows - they are huge, fearless,  abundant and VERY noisy.

This one joined us at our table earlier when we were enjoying a cold drink in the hotel courtyard