South India 2008

Photos by Adam Jones

These photos were taken during two-and-a-half months in South India
(states of Karnataka, Goa, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala) from June to August 2008.

Gallery 20: Pondicherry

Pondicherry (also known as Puducherry and simply "Pondy") is a former French
colony on the southeast coast, quite laid-back and genteel in its old European section, more bustling
and equally enjoyable in the zones originally laid out for the Indian population. As the first photo
shows, signs of the French influence remain; there are rumoured to be croissants in town, but I never
tried them.

I.

II.

This photo and following: along the Pondicherry shore.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

This photo and following: people and street scenes in Pondicherry.
Here, a woman labourer on a building site.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first post-independence Prime Minister,
described his country as "an ancient palimpsest on which layer upon layer of
thought and reverie had been inscribed, and yet no succeeding layer had completely
hidden or erased what had been written previously."

X.

Temple elephant in Pondicherry.

XI.

Outside Pondicherry's maternity hospital. Let's hope the message
gets through: India has the most unequal ratio of female to male children of any
country in the world, the result of sex-selective abortion and female infanticide.

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