Staying with friends family in Pondy

I have a really good friend back home who is from Pondicherry and he always offered that if I was to go to India I could stay with his Mum and Dad. I wasn't ever 100% certain if his offer was genuine, but I definitely wanted to take up the offer. For me, staying with locals always makes my travelling worthwhile: I think if I only ever got to 'sightsee' I would have give up the travel game ages ago.

Anyway, his offer did come through and here I am. So far Louise and I have been here 3 nights and we will stay one more. I am worried about staying too long but it's festival time and we have been told that today isn't a good day to move on. For me this means forced relaxation... I really have no capacity for sitting around, so I'm struggling a bit.

The Indian hospitality is quite something else (I had hosts in Cochin too). Every meal time is like a forced feeding session where these hosts try to make us eat more than we can or want to. We are both learning to say a firm NO! Then, after eating we are told "rest".
Then, I must laugh, because yesterday I was given a new shirt, size 36XXL (I fit an Indian 'S'). I see 'mom' has ambitions for me!

Yesterday I snuck a piece of fruit mid afternoon while everyone else was resting. Not because I'm not allowed the fruit, but because if they see me having fruit they try to make me have more fruit.

Anyway this part of India used to be French (whereas the British had control elsewhere for longer, the French had it here). But, it's still more Indian than French. If I hadn't read or been told it was French I may not have noticed, although there are more white people here.

The neighbour over the street is Australian so everyday I go and chat for a few hours with him.

The festival goes for 3 days (today is the last). It is called Pongal, the harvest festival, that celebrates the beginning of the Tamil New Year. It has been a particularly wonderful time to stay with locals as we have been able to witness customs associated with this that we would never have seen if we were staying in a hotel.

In sightseeing, we have strolled along the waterfront promenade, visited the botanical gardens (really destroyed by a cyclone some time ago but not repaired), been blessed in 2 temples, and visited Auroville. I also have been blessed by an elephant outside a temple! (He taps you on the head with his trunk.) I was delighted by this.

Auroville is a strange alternative community of foreigners and locals just outside Pondi. I don't really 'get' it, so I won't comment much.

Finally I want to say that Pondi is where the story 'Life of Pi' starts out. I've read the book, but I'm still hoping to see the movie.

The photo shows a neighbour doing the decorations out the front of the house. Each house does this every morning for Pongal and they all seem to be works of art in their own right, each different to the others: big, small, colorful, geometric, or pictures of something.