Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

A street to walk on

As it is largely free of traffic, the Francois Martin Street, is a pleasant experience

PHOTO: T. SINGARAVELOU

WHERE CALM PREVAILS Rue Francois Martin in Kuruchikuppam

How many shopping streets in Puducherry are pleasant thoroughfares too? Streets you might stroll along just for the fun of it, whether you intend to buy anything or not?

The main shopping streets here offer the thrill of jostling on uneven narrow surfaces, dodging vehicles and other people, which is not much fun.

Nehru Street is traffic-choked and its once distinctive facades have been either replaced or covered by large boards. These disfigurements are intended to attract attention but their effect is simply to cancel each other out.

M.G. Road, which features traditional utilitarian stores, and tree-lined Mission Street, until recently a possible high street, are now the two most congested north-south traffic arterials across the boulevard town. Try crossing them at any point during the day. Exciting, isn't it? At least, on the one-way Nehru Street you need only watch for oncoming traffic.

So, which might be the town's most relaxed and relaxing shopping street?

Until recently, Romain Rolland between Surcouf and Bazar St. Laurent Streets held the honours with distinctive shops in a pleasant streetscape. But, with the morphing of the enormous old (and long derelict) SBI into various buildings of little distinction and greatly out of scale with the width of the street itself, the area has lost much of its charm precisely where shops are most numerous.

The nifty new location, in the process of revealing itself, is Francois Martin Street, north of North Boulevard. This largely residential street in Kuruchikuppam is wide and largely free of traffic, most of which is pedestrian and bicycles.

The "feel" is unlike anywhere else in Puducherry. A residential zone of three-storeyed flats and the simple houses of long-time residents, its buildings are in good relation to the street they face. There are people coming and going to work, school or the Ashram, and launderers, gatekeepers and others in regular attendance all day long. Small local shrines to Lord Ganesh, a goddess, the Virgin Mary and St. Anthony say something about the community. You can somehow sense the sea nearby and can actually see it from a bridge over a malodorous stream.

In short, this part of town joins the Ashram, French and Muslim quarters as a distinctive and quiet place to visit. It is an epitome of peaceful Puducherry.

There has long been a tiny maligai store and one waste paper depot, but other retailers are coming up. Let's start at the north end (seaward from the four-storeyed building) with Taraomoo, a fine old house (once the local post-office; the red letter box still stands outside) converted to a place for "anything to do with stitching". The owner, Manjoo, is available from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to discuss what it is you want to do with either your fabric or stuff she will find for you. The idea is to create something new. Her clientele is Indian and non-Indian, women and men; there are regulars who don't live in Pondy but have their orders couriered to them after their visit. Down the street is Alchemy, owned by Angeline, again in a fine old building with a nice assortment of readymades, mostly for women, in today's informal styles and colours. Shawls are a specialty, and their signature brand, Baya, can be found in shops in India and abroad. A little further south and across the street is Excellent Bengal Handicrafts run by Bharati Dhar. You will find here cotton saris in styles (such as Tangail) from Bangladesh, simple clothing with fine kantha embroidery and the famous life-like, clay-on-wire Krishnanagar dolls.

Aurodhan Gallery has plenty of space in a large building to show off an impressive range of modern paintings by established and youngartists. The view from their balcony affords a delightful squirrel's eye view of the neighbourhood. Across the street from Aurodhan is the Presse Bureau, which publishes Puducherry's only surviving guide book with English and French editions, largely unchanged in concept and content over the years. It also distributes a wide range of periodicals from France and has a shelf of classic and modern fiction in French.

At the junction of North (a.k.a. Patel) Boulevard and Francois Martin is Vatika Guest Home with five rooms of singular charm. There is also a small selection of teapots and so on at the reception. But, as at other places along this street, talking with the proprietor (telephone 2333980 from 12-2 and 7-9 p.m.) about the past and the present of the street and the aspirations of those who live and work along it is a pleasure in itself. This street is short in length, but long on character.

PETER RICHARDS

(yourpondy@yahoo.com)

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail