We'll Always Have Pondy

Puducherry's Indian-French citizens are returning to set up businesses and foundations that preserve and promote their unique culture

- Aravinda Anantharaman

"Had FOMO," says Audrey Pelerin, 39, a sustainability consultant, explaining why she moved to Puducherry from France. The French citizen was born in Le Blanc-Mesnil, a Parisian suburb, to French-Pondicherrian parents. Her father left for France to study in the 1970s and her mother joined him after their marriage in 1984. On both sides, over the years, family members made their way to France, with the exception of her maternal grandmother, who remained in Puducherry. As a teenager in France, Pelerin started wearing Indian clothes. She felt more at home during vacations in Puducherry. "At 15, I wondered if I should return. I wondered if I belonged here or there." Despite a comfortable life in Paris, she couldn't shake off "a void" and a deep "internal push" to go to Puducherry. She also missed her grandmother. On her 29th birthday, she told friends her 30th celebration would be in Puducherry. Fifteen of her friends showed up.

It was more than FOMO, this is where she wanted to be, "un choix éclairé", an informed choice, as she calls it. With her plans in place, she broke the news to her parents at a café. "My father stood up and walked away," she says. No one they knew had done this. Returning to Puducherry was the retirement plan. And Pelerin was 32. Even her grandmother was surprised, and asked: "Why are you coming to dry in the sun with me?" Friends and family were certain she would be back in Paris. Seven years later, Pelerin says she hasn't regretted it for a day.

"Neenga nationality-va?" is a question you'll encounter if you spend some time in Puducherry, the town and Union Territory still known by its French name of Pondicherry, or Pondy for short, despite the official name change in 2006. The nationality in question is French, an identity but also an inheritance.