On 19^th September 2019, FSL-India, Pondicherry’s coordinator organised a Cultural Event (CE) for our regular LTV volunteers. Every month, we organise a Cultural Event for our regular volunteers and we take them to any cultural and historical places which are located in and around Pondicherry. This month, the Cultural Event was focused on Nature/Religion.

Sri Karaneswara Temple is located on the Pudhukuppam Beach in Pondicherry, 12 kms north of Auroville. Sri Karneshwar Nataraja Temple is the most unusual and yet, one of the most beautiful temples present in India. Constructed in a pyramid shape, the temple is built to resemble the great pyramids of Egypt. Manakula Vinayagar temple is a Hindu temple in the Union Territory of Pondicherry, India. Dedicated to the god Ganesa, it is a popular pilgrimage site and tourist destination in Pondicherry. The temple is of considerable antiquity and predates French occupation of the territory.

A botanical garden or botanic garden is a garden dedicated to the collection, cultivation and display of a wide range of plants labeled with their botanical names. It may contain specialist plant collections such as cacti and other succulent plants, herb gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on. There may be greenhouses, shade houses, again with special collections such as tropical plants, alpine plants, or other exotic plants.

Sri Aurobindo Ashram is a spiritual community (ashram) located in the Indian territory of Pondicherry. The ashram grew out of a small community of disciples who had gathered around Sri Aurobindo after he retired from politics and settled in Pondicherry in 1910. On 24 November 1926, after a major spiritual realisation, Sri Aurobindo withdrew from public view in order to continue his spiritual work.

In the morning, FSL-India’s coordinator and our volunteers started their travel from the meeting point to the place of the cultural event.  In the beginning, the coordinator explained about the activities. Then, she took the 3 volunteers to different locations such as Sri Karaneswara Temple, Manakula Vinayagar Temple, a botanical garden and Sri Aurobindo Ashram. FSL-India’s coordinator explained about each place to our volunteers. After the visit, FSL-India’s coordinator and volunteer had lunch and discussed about their experience in the host family and the project.

Here is some feedback about the Cultural Event from our volunteers:

• Very nice and interesting
• It was exciting
• Really nice day
• We learnt about Shiva’s story
• It’s actually a wonderful event, would like see more places like this
• We have learned many cultural things, e.g. how they are decorating the lord, why people are praying, why they are keeping Viputhi on head, why they are giving Prasatham etc.
• It was actually a nice journey and had a nice time with the coordinator The places we went to were really amazing and the coordinator explained to me about the temple, who ruled there and how it was constructed