pondycherry

pondycherry is a nice enough place, but not very interesting or relaxing (swimming is forbidden on the shore because many people drowned)
so we all decided (except aviad who was reluctant) to take cooking lessons. quickly enough we found that the local government school "pondycherry institute of hotel management" will give us full-day cooking lessons at the ridiculous cost of Rs. 100 per day per person. we quickly took them up on their offer and registered for 3 days. we were the only tourists (ever?) to be there, since this is a proffesional school for indian chefs, waiters and hotel managers.

So after all, pondicherry for us was spending brilliant time with Brice and Amandine, and learning how to cook Indian Cuisine.
(actually, the main reason why we came to pondycherry was linda's fascination with nearby Auroville. after visiting there we had no choice but to declare it to be more like an "economically failing kibbutz"... how sad!)

after leaving the place we walked by some strangely-dressed guy who asked us to pose in front of a flower stand. he took many pictures in his camera and in ours as well. after that we talked for a while and he was a very cryptic and interesting guy named sanjiv (sanjivdepthoffield@yahoo.com) who is a brahmin from kashmir who ran away from there after the blood riots. in his own words he is a person who loved many women, lived in many places. he went on and on about himself, and in the indian fashion combining autobiography and self-praise quite unabashed and unselfconciously. however he was really interesting and nice and he offered to find us a better (or at least cheaper!) place than the one we were staying at. sure enough he delivered - calling us and setting us up with a wondeful giant room with 5 beds (which came in useful when pauline joined us) in the "new guest house" - an ashram guesthouse where no drinks, smokes, loud noise are allowed and a 10:30 curfew is strictly imposed.

from left to right: Amandine, Pauline, and yours truly.
on the bottom, is the picture of the wondeful chef rajkumar (ss_raaaj@yahoo.com) who arranged and taught us the cooking lessons - which we enjoyed tremendously.