I enjoyed this journey with so many different aspects of the south of India: first of all , Pondicherry, this French settlement which joined the Republic of India in 1954: Jérôme meets on the promenade Eliane, a retired French teacher who will be his guide in this town: they walk through the old French neighbourhood, then the Tamil neighborhood where people make drawnings on the floor with rice powder, they see a sacred cow walking in the street, they speak about the caste system in India, visit a fortune teller, go to a market and make an offering in a sacred Hinduist centre: they take a vegetarian dinner (she explains him that a lot of spices have medicinal properties) and Jérôme receives the blessing from an elephant in a Ganesh temple. What about the French influence: the mass in French in the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, the petanque (40 clubs in the town), the French bakery and pastry and the last French newspaper of Pondicherry , "Le trait-d'union".
Then Jérôme travels to Mahallibapuram ; a very precious historical site, a monolitic bas relief telling the Descent of the Ganges or Arjuna's Penance with 153 statues, and also other monolithic monuments. Later Jérôme travels to the Madras crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology: the Dr. Gwori Mallapur , veterinarian , explains the the gharial or gavial of the Ganges is endangered: they breed there the gharial for genetic purposes and they also buy living snakes to produce antivenoms.
Then I enjoyed the arrival at Chennai and the visit of the cricket club, a very popular sport in India and the meeting with Praghaiswan , the Tamil film director.
Besides we discover the "Royal Enfield" factory, a motorcycle made in India since 1955 : the chief executrive officer, Dr. Venki Padmanabhan explains with a lot of humour his strategy for the Royal Enfield and also we discover the labor of the "Speed Trust" association which helps widows to learn to drive a auto rickshaw and to be entrepreneurs ( women empowerment).
Also I enjoyed the reportings about Ragunath Manet, a great dancer , choreographer and vinâ player, bout the Aurovillke community and about the Pongal festival , a great multi-day harvest festival.