INQ flees strike torn Chennai for French connection

WE GOT the heck out of Chennai fast before the mother of all strikes hit the Tamil Nadu city today. Basically, the state government is protesting at a Supreme Court decision and declared a bundh between 6AM to 6PM, stopping transportation services including flights. A bundh is a closure. That means you can't do all sort of things, but getting a drink is hard anyway in Chennai - there's a sprinkling of pubs but no stags are allowed. That apparently means the boozers have to have a lass in tow to get in. An unlikely prospect for those unlucky in love.

A government declaring a strike? Great, said the somewhat anarchistic Paul Hales, they should do that more often. On a Saturday, though? That's no fun.

So we made our way last night down to Pondicherry, the French redoubt in India, only to find to our horror there's a worse problem than that to cope with - today and tomorrow are dry days because of a religious festival.

Pondicherry is a weird little time capsule with French colonial buildings surrounded by the usual Indian bustle - the old French signs are still in place, even though this became part of India back in 1954.

Its own web site describes it as the hardware capital of India - but that's not true anymore - the IT firms have shunted themselves elsewhere as part of a cunning plot to take advantage of SEZ (special exemption zones) which offer tax breaks.

Needless to say, this is all just part of our cunning slot to slip some pix your way as we continue our IT sojourn around Mahabharata.

Folly built for a courtesan. What gives?

France between our lips? Huh?

French chamber of commerce flanked
by an autorickshaw

Clean and very vert admonition

We noticed a few riot waggons waiting round the corner just off Joan of Arc square. Could they be readying themselves for a Mageek forcibly deprived of a beer for two days? No. Fortunately the "W" style Sarovar hotel we're staying in has a minibar packed full of Kingfishers. So Cindarella can go to the ball. Hic.