Sandosham offers a personalized holistic support, which can match different kind of needs:

-Improving physical health
-Appease stress and tiredness
-Living in harmony with your body
-Awake your spiritual conscious
-Regulate your mind
-Getting away from an endless problem or situation
-Realizing a better way of living in these different fields

To achieve these demands, different means are available to help us:

-Our personal experience
-Ayurvedic massages, as we have been trained in an international school.
-Shiatsu, as we have received one year training from a famous master.
-Medicinal cards of Amerindians and Hebraic letter cards.
- The therapeutic and positive effects of stones and crystals.
-Natural essential oils, homemade according your typology.
-Energetic and holistic cares.
-Nutritional and living hygiene advices.

Our interventions last from 30 minutes to 2 hours, according your needs. We are also working with partners, who offer Yoga, Vortex Healing and traditional Tamil massages.

In addition to these services, we also have a small holistic shop inside Sandosham with different crystals and natural oils.


What is the specificity of Sandosham compared with the other centers?

First of all, we have received the new Ayurvedic massages trainings, which have been redefined by an Indian and an Italian master, in order to improve the efficiency and to match better to the needs of western people. We have learned to work with our conscience at the present moment, which has to be put in every of our movements, to use oil with parsimony, to adapt the massage to the typology of the person (three different typologies, based on the five natural elements). In fact, it is a very personalized massage. So we offer various care, and a help for personal development.

What are your short and long term projects?

Our main aim is that Sandosham develops well; attracting regular customers and keep on learning through this project and people we met thanks to it. We also would like to offer Ayurvedic training (massages/cares). Our website is in development as well. Maybe we will develop more projects in the future, to live more and more in a joyful way and lead our children on this way.

What kind of advices could you give to someone, who would like to settle down in Pondicherry?

I would recommend him to have enough time and money. You don’t have to be in a hurry. You have to arrive, then to spend several months, to evaluate the situation on the field, in order to understand how things are working there. Moreover you have to trust yourself and being very motivated.

For more details about Sandosham: http://toutpondi.com/bienetre_spas_ayurvedique_yoga.htm

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Encouraged by the success of her first exhibition, Patricia decides to do another exhibition, but that time in a more traditional way, without touching them up. With her Leica M in her hands, she is ready to face China and India. From these travels, she brings back beautiful snapshots, which will be rewarded by being exhibited in Toulouse. For those, who can’t fly to Toulouse to see them, some of her Indian photos are available on ToutPondi.com.

2. Jacme, a literature conductor.

Jacme Gaudas is someone very particular to understand, before to start anything, you have to know that Gaudas means “great joy” in Catalan and that Jacme comes from Montauban (the south of France). So with his natural joy, he grew up in the Occitan country, and learned this language, which is full of sun and music. Occitan language is a very old language, derived from Latin, which has been spread in all the Mediterranean kingdoms. If you add to that, an incredible and transcendental passion for Jazz and for everything linked to the culture, and you will get a Jacme Gaudas.

Eternal lover of words and languages, Jacme likes writing. He has already written several novels, most of them dedicated to Jazz festivals, telling with his particular style. His pen is not only lead by his brain or his hand, but also by his affective sense and his innate sense of the literature rhythmic. Indeed, he is telling stories with huge humanism his jazzistic adventures with all his friends and singers. So he manages to make the reader feel this mood of simple and honest friendship, which is one of the most important values in Occitan as Georges Brassens sang it. But beyond his ideas and the fond, Jacme uses his pen as a chef conductor stick and the words as notes. So his texts are rhymed by sentences more or less short, by sound more or less French. Indeed, he never hesitates to mix harmonically French, English and Occitan in the same sentence, and sometimes the same word, absolutely “freesonnant”!

Big passionate of music, he also writes songs for French singers (Les Femmouzes T, Rita Macédo, Guillaume Lopez, collaborate avec Fabulous Trobadors, Massilia Sound System..) But like everybody Jacme had to find a job, so he found the perfect way to combine his passion for writing and music by becoming a musical journalist! He starts by writing in the cultural pages for “La Dépêche du Midi”, after that he decides to make his job more focused on Jazz, and starts working for Jazz magazines…So he use to write for « Jazz Hot », « Improjazz », « Le Nouveau Politis », « Trad magazine », « Vibrations », which lead him to assist to almost all Jazz festival in France and Europe, but also to cross the Patricia’s path.

3. A Jazzy meeting for a Jazzy couple.

Question: how a musical photograph could meet a Jazz journalist? Easy answer: in the newspaper offices of course! Not at all! The couple is too jazz’n roll for that, in fact it was during the Guitar Master festival in Pau, in 1991. Indeed, at that time Jacme was working without specific photographer, and so he noticed the presence of this efficient photographer, always in the right place at the right time. The excuse was easy to find to talk to her, and it has been the beginning of a long story for these two lovers (of Art and Culture). They will quickly work in the same team for the same magazines.

Their passion for Jazz is beyond the music, it is all about the artistic way of creation that they have, maybe unconsciously, adopted as their life philosophy. Indeed, when a jazzman comes for the show in the stage, he has no idea about what he will play; and he will be inspired by the feelings and the energy he can get from the public. Jacme et Patricia do the same thing in their daily lives, they find their living and creating energy by meeting people, watching landscapes, visiting particular places…Each mood of life can be transform in a creative energy, you just have to be able to detect where it is. Little advice, this is everywhere, particularly in India!

Jacmé and Patricia are also very open-minded, we should say, have to be open-minded, if they want to catch creative energy from anywhere. So they really like meeting new people, speaking, discovering, feeling, according to them it makes their personal identity richer. Because of his Occitan roots Jacmé is very sensitive to folklores, which etymologically means “the wisdom of folks”, that is why he really loves the Tamil culture. A simple vision of life, revealing forgotten wonders of our daily lives (particularly for people living in India). Because of this philosophy, since they have met, they live a life full of meeting, exchanges, culture, projects and joy.


II) A life rhymed by the modern Troubadours.

The Troubadours have a special meaning for Jacme and Patricia. Beyond the prejudice, this is to see in a troubadour a vulgar poor jongleur; it is important to know the real story of one of the first artistic movements of the modern world. In fact, the Troubadours (which mean finders in Occitan) appeared around the XIem Century, mainly along the Occitan area. They are the first compositors-singers of the musical world. They write poems, and go to sing them in front of all the Mediterranean kingdoms, spreading a particular style. So they are the inventors, or the finders, of ballade or serenade, which are still singed today. These poets sang the impossible love between them and rich girls, they talk also about heroic values linked to the chivalry, and of course there are other songs more festive to dance and entertain people.

So the Troubadours are involved poets defending right values, and spreading a new heretic and erotic literature, enjoying their freedom to move from kingdom to kingdom to sing their poems. Jacme and Patricia are aware and impressed by this Occitan folklore that is why they are trying to find it again through other musical styles, like Jazz, Blues, Ragamuffin and every other music linked to values of Troubadours.

1. The tour of Jazz festivals in France and Europe.

The modern troubadours are still troubadours, so they can’t help to move always from a place to another, from festival to another to show their creations. So Jacme and Patricia have followed them for eight years on the roads of Europe, for discover or just listen to these troubadours of the XXI Century. During these beautiful years of freedom and meeting, they will go to France, Portugal, Turkey, Belgium, Germany, England, Netherlands and even Morocco. As they are always present to this kind of events, they become friends with different artists like Michel Portal, Henry Texier, Bernard Lubat, Tatou from Massilia Sound System, Les Fabulous Troubadours and so on. In fact, Jacme manage to set up a trustful atmosphere, the artist knows that his words won’t be misused, and can tell everything with sincerity. This privileged relationship doesn’t mean that Jacme most his objectivity, on contrary the artistes become more and more attentive to his critics, because they know that he is not lying about his feelings.

From these years, the couple keeps excellent souvenirs and friends. Particularly during the Kusadasi festival, in Turkey, where they spend one weak with Shan Parker (the widow of the huge bird Charly Parker), the great pianist Michel Graillet and his wife Micheline. They also keep very good souvenirs of Uzeste festival with their friend Bernard Lubat, a big image of the modern troubadour. The international festivals of Nevers, Guimaraes or Fez were also very good moments for them.

After these crazy years, Jacme and Patricia decided to slow down the rhythm of festivals. Always having new ideas, they are thinking about a new concept, the first web TV in France and Europe, only dedicated to the cultural sides.

2. The OC-TV.net adventure.

In 1998, Jacme and Patricia become involved in the Internet revolution, by launching their cultural television channel, named OC-TV.net. The concept is to meet subversive artists, most of the time ignored by the mass media. Their web TV is divided into seven different channels for seven different cultural fields: music, cinema, plastic art, contemporary dance, literature, cinema, Jazz (it is always difficult to give up fully passion) and dezir TV. Dezir TV aims to meet directors of porn films, in order to get another view of these people, who are not very present in the newspaper! So beyond the hot side, this channel has lead to great and very surprising meetings!

Each channel being specific, it has to be managed by a passionate instead of a traditional journalist. So for example, a new poet will be interviewed by a literature passionate, in order to ask the interesting and pertinent questions. The other particularity of this TV, is that there is no limitation of time, language, of whatever, this is totally free. So the idea was to highlight artists, for achieve that, in all the reportages the journalists are not visible or listenable, the only one who is speaking is the artist. Each week, two or three new portraits are online, and you can still watch them on the archives of the website, some marvels are waiting for you among the 800 hours of archives.

OCTV has been very successful in the Internet sphere, indeed every day between 10 000 and 20 000 visitors go on the website, depending on the online portraits. But beyond these statistics, OCTV showed to the whole Europe, that it was possible to provide cultural information of high quality without any kind of limitation. The effects were the multiplication of these webTV, but also the great satisfaction if Internet users, who were waiting for a long time for quality information. This project let to Patricia and Jacme to meet always more artistic people, for their biggest happiness. But after a decade of activities, the couple starts to feel boring. So they sold the management of the webTV, and start to think about a new challenge, somewhere else.


III) The call of the Indian summer.

1. The meeting with Pondicherry.

During the 2009 year, as soon as OC-TV adventure was finished, Jacme and Patricia need to change their mind. They even think to move in Morocco and settle in Fez, they met a good friend there during the festival Jazz in Rihad, and they plan to open an Internet coffee in the medina. That was the plans before fate decides something else for them. In Toulouse, they were eating with friends, who told them they have rent a big guest house for July, in Pondicherry, La Maison Blanche, and there was still one room available. Jacme and Patricia always ready for new experiences and new meetings accepted that, and that is how they arrived in Pondicherry one lovely morning. Many people speak about the cultural choc for western people, who arrive in India for the first time. For Jacme and Patricia it was much more like an emotional choc. A wellness feeling and the floating energy floating in the air charmed them immediately. They felt in love with everything they are seeing every day. Patricia want to immortalize these privileged moments, by taking pictures of the children, the villages, the fishermen…She even has the honor to stay for five days among Brahmans, who are inaugurating a temple for Parvati, in Colas Nagar. She films the whole experience, and makes a mini movie. She also does some creative videos with music about the scenes of the Tamil daily lives, in the market, in the beach, in the village…And Jacmé, who is usually very quickly home sick, feels something odd when it is time to leave. So the heart full of new souvenirs, they promise to themselves that they will come back soon.

And they keep their words, as soon as they arrive in France, they plan their next trip in Pondicherry for October. For that, the experience was even more intense than the first time; they are feeling like fish in an ocean. Aware about the future shifts in their lives, they decide to change their settlement idea from Morocco to India. And so since last April, they are enjoying fully their way of life. Patricia has always known that she will live abroad, in front of the sea. And so with Mamy and Papy Rose (their lovely owners) in the neighbors, she is living fully her love of lights and people of Serenity beach.

2. The beautiful discovering of the Tamil world.

As Jacme and Patricia are still in their philosophy of paying attention to the folklores, they don’t arrive in Pondicherry like neo colons, who come to show their science and wealth. They are very open and curious about the Tamil culture; they can feel its deepness and magnificence. It is right that a literature old of more than 2500 years has a lot of things to teach us; but before to understand that, you have to clean up your mind of material thoughts. Perfectly located in Serenity Beach, in the middle of a Tamil village, Jacme and Patricia share their lives and feelings with the neighbors and the surrounding friends.

Jacme was surprised to observe that Tamil language show similarities with Occitan language. Particularly concerning the pronunciation and the sonority of words. For example, “sun” is translated in Tamil by “Soûrien”, while in Occitan it is “Sorelh”. It is perfectly unbelievable to being witness of this kind of exchange: an Occitan troubadour passionate of Jazz learning the language of an old Tamil fisherman! This is this kind of experience, which make people more alive that what they think they are.

So this is without surprise that the couple felt in love with the Tamil language. When most of foreigners heard an incomprehensible blabla, Jacme heard a soft and emotional music, just like if it was Blues! Tamil are also very receptive to the sonority of Occitan, as Jacme noticed it when he sings Occitan songs to the Tamils kids, absolutely hypnotized by the musicality.

3. Life in Pondy.

Jacme and Patricia arrived in Pondicherry without particular professional projects in their minds, they prefer take the time to live. So they are adapting softly to the Tamil tempo, which won’t be so difficult for these music lovers, even if the Tamil music is often unexpected! But of course, they are thinking about become involved in some cultural projects or why not to organize a Jazz festival! They also have the idea to organize some lunch between people, who don’t know each other, but who could become good friends, because they have some common points. They use to do that in Toulouse, and it was always a success and a very nice moment. So why not doing the same thing here, they just need to buy a beer instead of a pastis!

In fact, there are many projects for these cultural lovers, they wish to invite their musician friends from France and organize some small outside concerts for people of the villages. Patricia is still very busy by her pictures and videos, which is not very surprising because every daily scene can be viewed like a beautiful artistic piece, or like “living paintings” as Patricia said. Moreover she will also realize reportage on the inauguration of the Kali temple in Tandriannkupann. In the same time, Jacme is writing every day about anything. When you have the writing soul, a sample tropical storm can keep alive his imagination for hours. Maybe one day, we will have the pleasure to discover his novels in the libraries of Pondicherry, or in a new cultural newspaper of Pondicherry, why not after all? So everybody knows that there are loads of cultural opportunities here, and we are eager to know which one this artistic couple will undertake!

Jacme and Patricia are rare persons, even threat of extermination; who are leading their lives according humanist principles of high value. Eternal defenders of the cultural plurality, identity of folks and the creative freedom, they are proposing their creations to other to make appear again particular feelings, too often forgotten. These two agents of the Intelligencia service are working in the relative shadows of Sereinity beach for a world full of respect, love, discovering…and Jazz of course!

For more information about this unusual couple, several links are avaible:

- www.phb.me: Website of Patricia, with her photos and videos.

- www.transmediadoc.free.fr : Website of Jacme with his interviews and texts.

- www.OC-TV.net: Their cultural web TV, with still many archives online.

- www.toutpondi.com: The Patricia’s photos of the fisherman village, in the category « photo of the month »

By Guillaume LAISSE for ToutPondi.com.

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