Australian travel vlogger nearly vomits at Delhi's ‘garbage mountain'; reaction goes viral: ‘The smell is a straight uppercut'
Australian travel influencer Jaden Laing is grabbing attention after posting a video from his visit to Delhi's towering Ghazipur landfill, which he fittingly calls 'garbage mountain.'
In the video, Laing is seen cruising through the capital in a cab with his friend Winna when the massive dump site looms into view. Curious, they decide to stop and take in the sight. But the moment Laing cracks the window open, he's hit with an intense wall of odour.
'Get an Uber out of here. I am actually going to vomit,' he says in the video, gagging as Winna shields his nose with his T-shirt. Moments later, Laing is spotted crouched on the roadside, clearly overwhelmed. 'The smell is a straight uppercut to the nose,' he groans.
The clip, which has since gone viral on Laing's social media, includes some background: 'The Ghazipur landfill is a landfill waste dumping site established in 1984… covering around 70 acres and rising over 236 feet.'
A post shared by Jaden Laing (@jadentysonlaing)
The duo's chaotic Delhi adventure doesn't stop there. They hop on the back of a local's bike to visit a nearby fish and meat market, but the pungent smells prove too much again. Laing bolts, this time leaping into an auto-rickshaw and shelling out Rs 500 just to flee to Old Delhi.
Social media had a field day with the footage. While some laughed at Laing's melodramatic reaction, others weren't impressed.
Winna said, 'Words cannot describe how feral the smell was here, I will never forget this moment with my brother Jagdeep,' in the comments.
One user said, 'You walk into a landfill and complain about the smell? What were you expecting, fresh lavender?' Another wrote, 'Bro I can smell this through the phone.' A few users questioned why foreign content creators often gravitate toward India's less glamorous corners first, rather than showcasing its beauty.
Despite the polarising reaction, Laing's Indian travel series isn't all about shock value. Other videos on his feed feature far more wholesome experiences, from exploring the streets of Old Delhi in a rickshaw and donning a Sikh turban, to trying on a kurta-pyjama and admiring the Taj Mahal.
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"I 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. Also read: Can Auroville become a model for cities of the future? 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. Puducherry's history as a French colony rendered it different from the rest of India. The fallout from the events that unfolded long after French ships first landed on these shores in the late 1600s, and after they left in 1954, are still visible in its distinct French quarter, the presence of the French consulate, along with several institutions such as the Alliance Française, the French Institute and Lycée Français. It shows up in the culture of the town—the croissants are excellent, as is the cheese. It's also evident that the people pride themselves on the town's uniqueness, that separates it from their neighbours in Tamil Nadu—its 'French touch". One of the more fascinating aspects of the town's history is the many migrations it has witnessed. Especially as, in this case, the migration was not forced by war or occupation or even a social trend. Instead, it was offered as a choice to an entire population when the French left India. I wonder if families spent hours in discussion or if someone made an ad-hoc decision to take the French up on their offer. No matter how and no matter the choice, decades later, it continues to shape Puducherry's landscape, socially, culturally and even economically. There were two key moments in history when the people were called to choose their allegiance. The first came in 1881, when they were invited to voluntarily renounce their personal laws and adopt the French Civil Code. This brought voting rights and employment opportunities, and governance by French law. Those who chose it became known as the 'renoncants". Many of them were of the oppressed classes and saw this as a way out of the caste system. They mostly served in the military, taking postings to other French colonies around the world. The second call came when Puducherry was handed over to India. In 1962, the Indian government passed the Citizenship (Pondicherry) Order by which French nationals (domiciled there or outside) would automatically become citizens of India unless they chose to retain their French nationality. They were given six months to decide—French or Indian? According to reports, by 15 February 1963, the date of the closing of registrations, 4,944 'optants" had made a declaration, for a total of 7,106 people. Just like that, destinies were made. And many families found themselves divided by this. It led to deep aspiration among those who caught on later that a French passport could be a ticket to a better life. And if one didn't have the fortune of a 'nationality", marriage (to French citizens) offered a second chance. In From Pondi to Paris: Pondicherry's Marriage Market (Open Democracy, 2016), Nicola Desouza writes that the attraction of France created its own industry, with brokers promising suitable marriages to French citizens for hefty sums. Every trick in the book was employed to land a 'nationality marriage". CEFP board members (from left) Audrey Pelerin, Gunasekar, Anita De Canaga, Segiyane-Sylvain Paquiry, Francisque Lebrunie, Sandhya Bonnet and Gopady Pajaniradja. The Franco-Pondicherrian is one with roots in Puducherry but a French citizenship. They are a disparate community because among those who chose France were people from all classes and strata of the society, a microcosm of the town. And within the community, expectedly so, there are those who have held tighter to traditions while others have preferred to assimilate. And like migration everywhere, it comes with the questions of identity and belonging. 'I come from a family of farmers," says Segiyane-Sylvain Paquiry, 54, an entrepreneur who splits time between Paris and Puducherry. 'I wouldn't be doing what I am without the French idea, the social lift, strongly rooted in La République, which unlike communitarianism is indivisible, secular, democratic and social. My grandfather lived in a village 60km from Pondicherry. I would have stayed there. The French public school allowed me to go beyond my destiny. I am quite honest to realise that." Paquiry was born in France to Pondicherrian parents. At 12, they returned to Puducherry when his military officer father retired. He enrolled at the French school, the Lycée Français International de Pondichéry. Opened in 1826, it is one of the oldest schools in the country and the oldest French school in Asia. Where it originally catered to the French and the metisse (mixed people), it is now part of a larger network of 600 schools in 138 countries, governed by the ministry for Europe and foreign affairs, open to all. Also read: The rise of matcha bars in India Moving from the south of France to a hot coastal Indian town wasn't easy, Paquiry recalls, but by the time he completed school, in 1991, he didn't want to leave. At 18, he went for higher studies to Paris. 'I promised to come back as much as possible," he says. He admits to having an identity crisis. 'I tried to be more Indian," he says. 'This crisis is common until you find your balance. After 10 years of frequent travel to India, I realised I couldn't say I am neither Indian nor fully French, for sure. When I started travelling across India, it was so different. How can we pretend there is a single Indian culture?" asks Paquiry. It's easy to forget about the rest of India in Puducherry when the goal has for long been France. Where once the migration was entirely one-way, there's a shift that has begun in the last decade as Pondicherrians in France are turning India-wards. For some, like Pelerin, it is a desire to reconnect with one's roots, but for others it is about being part of the big changes that India is seeing, the growth and economic opportunities which were not available to their parents' generation. Lycée Français International de Pondichéry. Francisque Lebrunie, 48, tech entrepreneur and investor, chose to come here for a year with his wife, Emilie, and their newborn son in 2021. His father, a Pondicherrian with Cambodian heritage, had been a French diplomat stationed around the globe. After the unexpected loss of his wife, the senior Lebrunie chose to retire in Puducherry in 2015. Francisque Lebrunie had little familiarity with India, he says, having visited only a couple of times. He was born in Burgundy but travelled where his father's postings took him. 'What motivated us was the desire to offer our child the chance to grow up here rather than in Paris. We felt that the environment, the rhythm of life, and the values here would be a meaningful experience for him." As an entrepreneur, Lebrunie had the flexibility of remote work. He calls it one of the 'best decisions we've ever made". After the year was over, they stayed on and their son now attends the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education or 'Ashram school" as locals call it. 'I've begun developing ventures in India," he says. His is not a retired life; he advises French investors looking at India. 'Professionally, Europe's economy has stagnated and is in decline. There's greater dynamism and momentum here." After living in Paris, he's not complaining about the slower, more balanced life Puducherry offers. It's still summer and I ask Lebrunie about how he's battling the weather. 'I'll take this over the winter there," he says, laughing. Lebrunie's Cambodian connection is another thread in the Puducherry narrative, of another migration that took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nearly every Franco Pondicherrian I spoke with had ancestral links with the former Indochina—Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos—or to Reunion Islands in the Indian Ocean or to Guadeloupe and Martinique, which were part of the French Caribbean. Travel between Puducherry and these countries seems to have been fairly commonplace. If the renoncants chose the military, there were also those (often from upper castes) who went to work as teachers, administrators and accountants in the French colonies. Many integrated with the local communities. Those in Indochina left in the post-world war years, with the Vietnamese independence from France followed by the Vietnam war, and either returned home to Puducherry or moved onward to France or other former colonies. 'My grandfather came back in the 1950s," says Anita de Canaga, a French Pondicherrian entrepreneur in her 50s. Her grandfather had worked with the French administration in Vietnam and Cambodia. Her father and his siblings were born in Vietnam with extended family members who were Vietnamese. Their lives too followed the same arc, of people from Puducherry going to Indochina, coming back and later going to France. When de Canaga's parents returned to retire here, her young son suggested they too come here. With her mother Pushpa being an excellent cook, they started Chez Pushpa, a private Franco-Pondicherrian lunch experience hosted at their home. The Franco-Pondicherrian thali they serve may resemble the Tamilian one but is not identical, having Tamil, French, Vietnamese and other influences. It includes dishes like the salade créole, mutton sambar (both unique to Puducherry) along with Tamil dishes like the flat beans poriyal, rasam and vermicelli payasam. Its signature spice is vaduvam, a blend of French herbs and Indian spices famously represented in the Duck Vadouvam. Then, there are dishes like boti rice (lamb intestines cooked with coconut) and the cha gio (spring roll) that points to the Vietnamese detour in the town's history. Porc vindali (cooked differently than the Goan vindaloo) and vivikam (like Goa's bibinka) add further layers of cultural influence. The links to Goa and the Portuguese, explains author Ari Gautier, come from a time when the first French settlers in Puducherry found wives in Goa's mixed community because they were not allowed to marry Tamil women. Born in Madagascar, raised in Puducherry, Gautier left for France after finishing school. Now residing in Norway, his writing takes on several layers, especially caste. Puducherry is clearly a muse, seeing how his three books, Nocturne Pondicherry (a collection of stories; 2024), Le Thinnai (2018) and Carnet Secret de Lakshmi (2018; also available in English) are all set here. 'Pondicherry can be difficult to grasp. It's neither French nor Tamil, it's creole." He refers to two kinds of creole—the haute creole, who were direct descendants of the French and also more affluent, as well as the bas creole, who were the rest, a mixed race with many of them belonging to lower castes. His work has drawn him into greater explorations of the idea and identity of creole and he also calls it a cultural and political statement. Gautier's Le Thinnai is set in Kuruchikuppam, a neighbourhood just outside the French quarter, home to the bas creole, where a Frenchman named Gilbert Thata narrates a story of how he lost his fortunes as he spends his life on the thinnai, that loosely translates as veranda, a characteristic of old Tamil homes. It draws you into a world where the brusque but lovable creole cook Lourdes whips up dishes like the baffade, chicken marinated with coconut milk gravy, where smells and sounds are vivid, and where language takes on an earthy cadence. On choosing the bas creole as his central subject for his novel, he says, 'I grew up with that community. Since I am also mixed, it was normal for us to relate to them. I realised that in the French novels written on Pondicherry, this community is hardly mentioned." A very different Franco-Pondicherrian novel is the young adult fantasy Ellora by Valerie Gaudart. Unlike the others, Gaudart, 52, was born in Guadeloupe and now lives in France. Tracing her roots, she landed on a French ancestor who married an Indian woman, back in the 1760s. A closer history to her lifetime was the story of her grandfather, who left Puducherry for France where he met his French West Indian wife in Cannes, and they settled in Guadeloupe. Gaudart was born and raised there—and despite the distance, often dreamt of India. As an adult, she travelled widely to Asia, but India remained elusive. In 2007, she began work on a book, featuring Ellora, a young Franco-Pondicherrian girl with special powers. It took her 15 years to finish and in that time she had still not seen Puducherry. Villa Shanti, which has been restored as a restaurant and boutique hotel. In 2022, she launched Ellora at the Paris Book Fair, and also made the much-awaited journey to Puducherry. Expectedly, it was an emotional one. Paquiry (who is her partner now) helped her trace her ancestors' graves. She located their names on the plaque at the Notre Dame des Anges, the main Catholic church in Puducherry that dates back to 1855. She has since visited often, and is awaiting her OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card. While she thinks of Guadeloupe as home, India comes a close second. The French have a word for it, this variety: mélange. And that could have well been a defining feature of Puducherry, but it is a town of many divides. The nationality vs non-nationality divide still runs strong. In this context, the return of the Pondicherrian bodes well. 'This 'return' doesn't have to be physical or permanent," says Coumar Ananda, French Pondicherrian, Paris resident and president of the Indo French Chamber of Commerce in France. 'It can be intellectual, professional, artistic. It helps create a shared narrative of identity that includes both diaspora and locals—essential to avoid an 'us' and 'them' divide. Pondicherry thrives when it is porous, open and layered, and the diaspora helps keep it that way." Ananda, 53, grew up here, and studied at the Lycée before leaving for France. 'Leaving physically didn't mean leaving emotionally or intellectually," he says. 'In fact, distance sharpened my sense of identity and deepened my curiosity about our shared history." For him, choosing to do something in Puducherry came from a desire to contribute to its future. 'What sustains that interest is the belief that Pondicherry can be a living bridge not just a nostalgic symbol between India and France, a place where ideas, cultures and generations meet meaningfully." In 2023, Ananda set up the Pondicherry City & Museum Lab Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to rejuvenating historical and heritage sites. Their flagship project is the Textile Museum Lab. Puducherry has a long legacy of textile weaving and indigo dyeing that predates the French. Back in 2 BC, there was a thriving cotton cloth and indigo dyeing production industry in Puducherry with active trade with the Roman empire. The tradition of weaving grew and as part of the Chola kingdom (10-13 CE), cotton cloth was one of the main goods for trade. When the French arrived, they established Pondicherry Swadeshi Cotton Mills (now owned by the ministry of textiles) and Anglo French Textiles (owned by the Puducherry government)—employing over 10,000 people at their peak. Ananda traces his family's connection to these mills through his grandfather. Since the 1990s, the mills have ceased operation. Ananda's team is working to revitalise this textile tradition. As part of this plan, the old textile factory will become home to the new museum, its architecture preserved. It's being designed as a space to offer an immersive experience of the town's textile heritage, while supporting local artisans, designers and innovators. Like Ananda, Paquiry too found himself desiring to strengthen the links between his two homes. In Puducherry, he saw that many old buildings being sold as owners in France couldn't manage them remotely. The town's architectural heritage was at risk. Franco-Tamil architecture or tropical architecture in Puducherry is unique in the way it incorporated vernacular architecture before the arrival of European and colonial architectural styles. Paquiry urged owners not to sell or demolish but to find new economic uses. In 2006, he started Villa Shanti, restoring a home with mid-20th century architecture in the French quarter as a restaurant and boutique hotel. Villa Shanti offered a model of restoration and heritage conservation that was a blend of modern and heritage, French and Tamil. Paris-based architect and designer Tina Trigala and Yves Lesprit, who worked on it sought to use local material, local contractors in a considered approach to restoration. He followed it with La Villa. Once the house of the Lycée's principal or proviseur, dating to the 19th century, it was renovated to offer six suites. The most recent addition is The Spot, at what was once the Maison Colambani. These spaces are neither fully French nor Tamil but modern Pondicherrian, faithful to its roots but not burdened by it, which is attractive in such a tourism-dependent economy. On the day Puducherry became part of the Indian republic, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru hoped it would continue to be a 'window to France". But the French population here is shrinking. 'The number of French citizens registered with the consulate (which is voluntary) is now 3,740. In 2014, it was about 6,740. The decline has been rapid, especially after covid," says Etienne Rolland-Piegue, the consul general of France in Puducherry. Up until the early 2000s, he says, many retirees, especially soldiers, returned. The shrinking numbers can be attributed to career shifts. Paquiry points out that more Franco-Pondicherrians now work in the private sector, which extends their working years in France and also makes them less dependent on a pension for retirement. But today's Puducherry offers France something in return—a gateway to India. For Pelerin, coming to India was also about getting to know the country, to 'de-condition my idea of India." For de Canaga, travelling around India introduced her to a larger culture and craft, leading her to set up a travel company and a platform called Helping Arts to promote Indian handmade products. Pelerin, Paquiry, de Canaga and Lebrunie are all members of the Club des Entrepreneurs Français de Pondichéry (CEFP). Established in November 2017 with approximately 50 members, it initially served as a network for French entrepreneurs. In 2023, Pelerin, representing a new generation, assumed the role of club president. 'For me, Pondicherry is the bridge between France and India, the ideal place to initiate projects that connect the two cultures. It's an under-utilised asset with immense potential. This can be a hub where India draws inspiration from France, and vice versa. All these experiments could unfold here." The CEFP convenes monthly, maintains a website, and provides assistance to new entrepreneurs arriving here. It has also opened membership to Indian entrepreneurs. That's the bridge they have begun to build, reaching out to Pondy's disparate worlds through these several ideas and initiatives. I moved here three years ago with my family, when my son joined the Lycée. With no prior connection to the town or its people, we set out to orient ourselves to Puducherry. While this story is about those who straddle two worlds and multiple identities, Puducherry is equally shaped by those who never left. And perhaps too, by those, like us, who continue to arrive at this shore, choosing it for what it offers: a small coastal town that defies easy definition, where multiple worlds exist. Aravinda Anantharaman is a Lounge columnist. She posts @AravindaAnanth1. 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