Vadivelu revisted ?

Recently a video was chosen (not by me) from the local Indian Grocery store for the usual weekend viewing.

This one said "Vaigaipuyal Vadivelu acting superbly in 9 roles"!

Vadivelu is by far the reigning comedian in Tamizh movies today. He has become increasingly popular in the last three or four years. We had never heard of him doing 9 roles in any movie.

Once the wife and MIL started watching this movie, they were in for a rude shock.
Vadivelu was not the main focus of the movie. At least not in the first 20 minutes. They got sick of it and returned the movie.

I have selected a few bad movies in the past. Looks like my track record has improved, just because I did NOT select "Thesiya Paravai"!!

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Bom Jesus Basilica - Goa

On our first day in Goa, we visited the Bom Jesus Basilica, a 500 year old church which also has the mummified remains of St. Xavier.

It was an amazing place. You walk through two giant trees which look to be 500 years old and the gas lights remind you of another age!

Calm and quiet with so many passing through the church and praying. The side of the building and some of the inside pillars are going through a renovation of sorts..

The inner sanctum..










After we visited this church we crossed the road to go to the St. Francis of Assisi Church, which also houses a museum.




But it was an extremely hot day (as is seen by the state of the street dogs at 11 AM!)

So we decided do take some pictures of Jr. and baby on the benches, and went on to buy them some hats and drink some "elaneer" (fresh coconut water)!

I could not help but wonder how this place managed to stay unchanged for so many years. Also thought of how in the US of A, historic places average anywhere between 100 to 250 years old, but the way they are publicized, facilitized and "touristized" for lack of a better word contrasts with the "yeah, it is 1000 years old! so ?" style in India.

On one hand, it is great that these places are not "commercialized" the same way as in western countries (They find out that some former president or Indian chief pissed on a stone and before you know it there is a nice highway with an exit right near the "monument", with a visitor center that sells everything from keychains to digital camera accessories, brochures, a few restaurants, not to mention a nice set of toilets with diaper changing stations!). One almost gets the same feel when you enter any of these touristy locations. I guess this is one way to create history as you grow older.

On the other hand it is also sad to see such a great resource (anything this nice and this old like the Basilica) that is under utilized (for starters, think of all the parking ticket money the local government could collect!). But it makes for a much more relaxing and natural vacation as opposed to a mechanical "visit" to a place where you almost have the trip standardized. There are pros and cons with both approaches and I am glad that I do get to go places in both countries.

We had a great time visiting the Churches. After this we went on to see a few temples which were once again very old, but that is a story for another day..

Mission at Santa Ynez

Continuing on the series of photo blogs on the Solvang trip...

Santa Ynez is right outside Solvang (you exit Solvang, enter Santa Ynez). The highlight of course is a Mission that is 200 years old! (not a big deal by Indian standards where old means 1000+ years!), but definitely historic considering how young the US of A is!

This mission has a museum of sorts which show earliest pictures (from 1800's and early 1900's), the clothes worn by the early clergy and a beautiful garden, not to mention the actual church itself or the 200+ year old paintings..

The corridor reminded me of Rameshwaram (a place I am yet to visit! and have seen only in pictures..) Extremely peaceful place..

There were actually two shrines, the big one where everyone worships and this little one which had only two chairs in front of it (maybe this was the original shrine?). Did not get a chance to ask anyone because they were closing pretty soon (we were there Christmas eve!). I am not a big church goer (maybe this is like having a Moolavar and Utsavar type thing in Indian temples ?)


Here is the main shrine. I actually had plans to sit there for a few minutes on the seats and soak in the atmosphere.. but they were vacuuming the carpet and that plan went nowhere..I could still visualize the place and the awe it would create when it was silent!


Now for the paintings, which are on an average 200 years old.. Flash photography was not allowed inside, so please bear with the quality of the images (this is the best I could get with 15 second exposures with F8.0)


Another large painting


There were lots of smaller paintings which were equally amazing, but you have go see them on the walls for yourself..


Then we visited the garden and courtyard, which apparently was the site of the very first educational instituion in California!!


The garden reminded me of Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicheri.. Very quiet in spite of lots of people milling around. For me, a person who is noisy by nature, More people always means more noise. The only deviations from this linearity are,

1. few people making too much noise (which does not surprise me anymore after seeing my two kids)
2. lots of people making no noise (that always puts me ill at ease at first and then suddenly slows my internal clock down. It is as though I start to move in slow motion). I experienced that in this garden..


On the whole a Christmas eve well spent!

That leaves Morro bay and Limekiln State park.. Considering I am going to be very very busy at work starting tonight, I will at least have those photo blogs ready before tonight and post them over the next week..