Quick, you can still make it to The Pondicherry Heritage Festival featuring home-grown fashion, nocturnal walks, food tours and performances

How often do you get to stay overnight in a forest, forage for breakfast, or watch a movie in a jungle hut?

The ongoing Pondicherry Heritage Festival makes all this possible, with the intent of letting people know that there is much more to this sunny coastal town than a promenade, cocktails and crepes. 

Started in 2015, the festival is in its eighth edition, and has never skipped a year. Even with a pandemic-struck calendar, it managed to take place in a part virtual-part live format.

“The idea of the festival is to celebrate and preserve our heritage,” says Sunaina Mandeen, co-founder of People for Pondicherry’s Heritage and PondyCAN. Explaining the origin of the festival she says, “The People for Pondicherry’s Heritage collective (which organises this festival along with INTACH and PondyCan) was formed after the Mairie Building, which was more than 140 years old, collapsed in November 2014. People felt that heritage was being taken for granted. Kakoli Banerjee (co-founder of People for Pondicherry’s Heritage) put up a post on Facebook calling for action; 30 to 45 people turned up for the meeting.” Thereafter, 3,000 people showed up for a tribute event to Mairie, with flowers and candles. 

From there on, The Pondicherry Heritage Festival took shape. In its initial years it featured talks and presentations for which people flew in from across the country. This year, the theme is ‘Celebrating natural and cultural heritage’ and the festival spans three weeks, with activities till March 27.

Sadhana Forest

In its last week there is plenty to keep attendees engaged: a village tour, the launch of a book, Trees of Pondicherry, a sit-down Pondicherry creole meal at Chez Pushpa, a heritage cuisine trail, and an overnight stay at Sadhana forest. Made in Pondicherry, featuring local craft, is back in a new avatar. On March 27, the festivities will come to an end with Colour Play, an evening of dance and storytelling by Anita Ratnam and friends. 

Star gaze in a forest

Venkata Subramanian of Pondicherry Beach Escapes is organising an overnight camping experience on March 26 and 27. It will include a visit to a reforested land, a bonfire, barbecue and dinner, as well as nocturnal walks and star gazing. “The next morning we will take participants bird watching, and along the way identify edible weeds such as nannari, wood sorrel , ponnangani, kuppai meni, followed by tea and breakfast,” he says.

Members from the indigenous Narikuravar community will act as wildlife guides on the nocturnal walk, where if lucky, guests can spot the world’s smallest wild cat and Indian eagle owl. “This is one of the first times that a member from the Narikuravar tribe has been oriented as a wildlife guide, giving them a platform to exhibit their skills and understanding of Nature. We are proud to partner with the Indigenous Biodiversity Foundation for this,” he says.

Sadhana Forest, a vegan, volunteer-based reforestation and water conservation project in Auroville, which hosts 1,000 volunteers every year, is gifting an evening (March 25) to participants, inviting them to their Eco Film Club, which has been running every Friday for the last 14 years at the Forest, to watch a film about the environment.

“Before the film there is a tour of the reforested land, children’s land and the gaushala, explaining the project’s mission, achievements, challenges, and future aspirations. After the film, a vegan, organic dinner is served,” says Yorit Rozin who founded the place along with Aviram Rozin. (There will be a free shuttle bus from Solar Kitchen in the centre of Auroville to Sadhana Forest and back.)

It is a surreal setting, in the lap of Nature: the film is screened in a large hut built from local and natural materials. The wooden structure is covered with coconut leaves woven together. “After the movie, the guests continue to be seated while all the volunteers form a human chain, and serve vegan food. “People who were strangers just a few hours ago, get to know each other and share beautiful moments together,” says Yorit.

This year’s Made In Pondicherry (MIP) segment has a new venue: the Indo-colonial Cariappa House. On March 25, its courtyard will brim with art installations. Says Bidisha Samantray, one of the organisers, and owner of Lal Design Studio, “This time we are celebrating the designs and crafts that happen in Pondy.”

Jewellery by Mamai

Besides putting up stalls, creators will take the audience through their processes. The organisers want to engage with visitors and explain why sustainability is important. There will be clothes, pottery, jewellery and bags from brands such as Hidesign, Le Pondicherry, Wunderhaus, Hibiscus Heroes, Lal Design Studio, 2B2, and Mamai among others.

A creation by Hibiscus Heroes

The event hopes to draw more visitors to “Pondy”, as well as leave an impact by underlining the more unusual facets of this popular weekend destination. For example, one gets to learn that Puducherry consists of two municipalities and five commune panchayats, including Bahour. “Bahour’s biggest contribution is the system tanks. It has 85,” says Sunaina, adding “This is what made it the rice bowl of Pondy.” An added benefit of the festival? Sunaina says that over the years she has noticed the local children getting better at quizzes, as they understand more about heritage and conservation every years.

For tickets and details, log on to www.pondyheritagefestival.org, or call: 8220205883