Intelligent Structural Health Management of Aerospace, Mechanical and Civil Structures

8/8/09

Today I woke up at 4:30am, and I couldn't get back to sleep, so I just decided to stay up until we were to get breakfast at 7. I spent this time listening to my Punjabi rap CD and watching some rugby on the Australian channel, it was tons of fun. At 7 we met to have breakfast.

After breakfast we waited for the cab, which came around 9:00. And so we set out to Pondicherry. Pondicherry is this town 2-3 hours south of Chennai that Brad had visited last time he was in India. Pondicherry is supposed to be more of a tourist destination type place, and had some temples worth going to as well as a french quarter.

After we got outside the city, there were still massive amounts of people along every part of the highway. It was obviously more rural, looking at the plants and animals everywhere, but there was still a non-stop flow of people.

Going into rural India was incredible. It was amazing to see the stark contrast between different peoples. It was a little like if you took an ancient civilization and brought it to the present. There were farmers living in ancient mud and grass huts that drove their ox carts to the city to sell massive piles of palm leaves, just as you might have seen thousands of years ago. But the next person you may see is an old man driving a world war two era motorcycle loaded up with giant sacks of rice, followed my a Mercendes Benz with tinted windows carrying an important political figure or businessman. These were the most radically different economic statuses that I've ever seen in such close proximity.

When we arrived in Pondicherry, I was surprised at the size, it seemed very similar to Chennai save for the taller office buildings. We were dropped off next to a huge Ghandi statue on the beach, and decided to go shopping for a bit. We walked through what looked like a pretty nice oceanside residential area, and soon came upon the shopping district. We walked along the street for some time, and went in to a dessert shop, and several trinket shops which all had the exact same stock of items, including ~$10 “gold” watches, “sound systems”, bracelets, wallets, etc. I was looking for a new watch, but none of these watches looked like they would last a week.

We decided to take a look and see what was behind the shops, and we found a claustrophobic and crowded market selling all kinds of spices, fruits, vegetables and medicines. Considering that the entire market was basically constructed over a giant sewer, it was amazing that it smelled quite good. While the main streets appeared to cater to mainly a tourist audience, it was clear that this market was where the locals bought and sold goods.