Every Sunday there is a market on Mahatma Ghandi Road in Pondicherry. We learned this last Friday and decided to go because it was supposed to be much fun to go and look at the many wierd things that the locals are trying to sell at this market. I think we all had the expectation that the street was going to be closed for traffic but it wasn’t so it was a bit hectic and also very noisy. The stalls were placed along the sides of the street and there were quite many of them. Most of them were selling clothes, but you could really buy anything in that marked. From rusty tools to pots and pans and toys and food and jewelry and even used electronics – they had it all.
DAY 10: SUNDAY MARKET
DAY 6: SHOPPING
Before dinner me and a group of girls from class went shopping for clothes. In India women are supposed to wear clothes that cover the knees and shoulders in addition to the obvious parts. This means that most of us Scandinavian girls from kulturstudier have to buy new and more appropriate clothes to wear when we are out in public. Luckily Pondicherry has many shops and stalls with fancy, colorful clothes that cost a 10th of the Scandinavian prices.
DAY 4: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
Today was our first day at the study center, which is located just outside of Pondicherry close to the beach at a holiday resort called RNK. At the entrance we were welcomed by a small group of people from the staff who guided us through a Hindu ritual. As part of the ritual the staff applied the bindi on our foreheads and put several food items at the feet of two statues portraying Ganesh, the Hindu diety of knowledge and wisdom, and Saraswati, the Hindu diety of learning (see photos). The food was later added to our breakfast buffet which we consumed with great appetite (the food is delicious here in India).
DAY 1: ARRIVAL
Around noon on January 30th we arrived in Chennai – the last stop before our final destination. A nice taxi driver picked us up and we drove to Pondicherry through what have to be the most chaotic and stressful traffic I’ve ever witnessed. Cars, trucks, busses, tractors, motorcycles and scooters were criss-crossing between the lanes in an attempt to overrun the vehicle in front of them while constantly honking their horns resulting in a situation which to me looked like complete chaos. ‘Welcome to India’, I thought to myself.