On Saturday, October 24th, we took another of Sudha's 6 a.m. "golden hour" walks, through Pondicherry's "Black Town": in colonial times, the French lived between the canal and the seaside Promenade, while the natives lived west of the canal. The main interest was the food market and the surrounding streets, where women from the villages would come to buy fish and vegetables to take back and resell.
We ended up at a coffee stand, where we had very good coffee and samosas.
This would be largely a travel day, so luggage had to be in the hall at 7:30 and the bus would leave at 8.
Next to a Shiva temple, we visited a collection of statues of what Sudha called the "fierce gods": fanged, beweaponed beings, surrounded by severed heads, set to protect the lower castes against their various oppressors, but now somewhat domesticated and residing next to the brahminical temple.
Then, out in the country, we visited a village of Untouchables, living in thatch-roofed huts. It was named Allkondanatam. The children, who were home from school because it was a holiday, were very excited to see us. Just before we left, Mary Joy had them singing "I love to sing!" At the very end, they asked her for her autograph!
After we got to our hotel in Thanjavur (formerly known as Tanjore), before dinner, we were treated to a performance by two teenage girls of three classical Tamil dances. They were fully costumed and accompanied by two male singers (one of them their teacher) and a drummer. They danced very well.
We ended up at a coffee stand, where we had very good coffee and samosas.
This would be largely a travel day, so luggage had to be in the hall at 7:30 and the bus would leave at 8.
Next to a Shiva temple, we visited a collection of statues of what Sudha called the "fierce gods": fanged, beweaponed beings, surrounded by severed heads, set to protect the lower castes against their various oppressors, but now somewhat domesticated and residing next to the brahminical temple.
Then, out in the country, we visited a village of Untouchables, living in thatch-roofed huts. It was named Allkondanatam. The children, who were home from school because it was a holiday, were very excited to see us. Just before we left, Mary Joy had them singing "I love to sing!" At the very end, they asked her for her autograph!
After we got to our hotel in Thanjavur (formerly known as Tanjore), before dinner, we were treated to a performance by two teenage girls of three classical Tamil dances. They were fully costumed and accompanied by two male singers (one of them their teacher) and a drummer. They danced very well.
No comments:
Post a Comment