Overview
Just guess what is common among the following. Colonial architecture, clean virgin beaches, tree-lined boulevards, endless stretches of, backwaters, conversation in French, roads converging exactly at right angles. You are right, it is Pondicherry or Puducherry also called the French Riviera of the East.
Pondicherry is a curious combination of French suaveness with traditional Tamil culture. However, the real charm of Pondicherry lies in its laid back attitude. Nobody seems in a hurry and the city moves on its own easy pace. Thus it becomes a perfect weekend getaway for the stressed-out workforce of nearby cities like Chennai and Bangalore.
Pondicherry has also a mystical connection to it. The great revolutionary and saint Sri Aurobindo chose Pondicherry as his abode then came Mira Alfassa aka Sri Ma or mother, the French disciple of Aurobindo.
History: Renowned relations outline the beginning of this city to Rishi Agastya, the well regarded erudite of the south. And excavations near Pondicherry expose that a Roman settlement existed here around 2000 years ago. Pondicherry acted as a place of a fight between the British and French. It was the capital of French India till the time it attained independence in the year 1954. French reverie of an Indian domain has taken life but it also quickly came to an end in Pondicherry. Among the isolated territories of the territorial units of Pondicherry, it is in Pondicherry itself that we can determine what has represented the French sway in India. That is also what makes this territory unique and especially, the French district. Something quite different from the rest of India. Pondicherry has been the theatre of many battles in the wars between the British and the French.
