Pondichery, Mon Amour

Avid preservationist Kakoli Banerjee traces her ongoing journey in restoring the French town’s rich heritage

I am in love, hopelessly and madly, with my city.

It is not always that your place of birth or where you grow up is your home. My first visit to Puducherry, in 2001 at the age of 36, was only for a couple of hours. I wasn’t sure if it had anything to offer.

By the year 2007, circumstances prevailed and having bought a dilapidated Franco-Tamil house in the French precinct of the town, more by default than design, I was here to stay. My friend Jyoti Saikia and I spent three years restoring the house, which we call GRATITUDE, along with our dear departed friend and guide, Ajit Koujalgi, then convenor of the INTACH chapter of Puducherry.

By 2010, the city had become home. I can truly say that when you make a choice as an adult to adopt a city as your own, a place where you do not have roots, you try to reach out and embrace all that it has to offer. In a (short) span of eight years, the unique mix of Franco-Tamil culture, the distinct yogic philosophy theorised by Sri Aurobindo and put into practice by the Mother, the city’s proximity to Auroville with its rich global diaspora, and its ability to have retained a small-town flavour gave me a deep sense of belonging. Here I must specifically mention the Mother, Mirra Alfassa, whom I consider my spiritual guide and mentor. Originally from France, she chose to make Puducherry her home in 1920 and collaborated with Sri Aurobindo in a fantastic, spiritual journey. She gave us a vision that became Auroville—a community close to Puducherry that brings together people from all over the world to create a city of the future. She came to be called the Mother because Sri Aurobindo recognised in her an embodiment of ‘Shakti’, the dynamic, creative force of Hindu philosophy.