St. Mary's Church, Fort St. George, Chennai

I spent the first 17 years of my life on the West coast of India. It must be quite obvious from a dozen or so of my posts so far, that I have an extremely soft corner for Kerala and most things associated with it. However, I have lived a much larger portion of my life on the East coast of India, in Chennai the capital city of the state of Tamilnadu. I moved here in my late teens to pursue my studies, and I have stayed on ever since. In those days it was called Madras, and it was only in 1996 that the State Government changed its name to Chennai.

The Chennai (or Madras) of my student days was a much nicer city. There were fewer people, and more importantly there were far fewer vehicles on the streets. There were fewer buildings too, very much more open land around these buildings, and life was much slower paced. Having a vehicle made it very convenient to get around, but it did not need to be a car. Even a cycle would do, and that is what I had. The Chennai of those days was also quite pedestrian friendly.

But, in the last few decades Chennai has grown at a brisk pace and in my opinion, it has not grown sensibly. A large number of modern buildings have come up, some of them at the expense of much nicer old buildings. The number of residents as well as vehicles has gone up very steeply. The roads are choked, traffic moves very slowly and chaotically, and the effective width of carriageways is considerably reduced because vehicles are parked along the sides of almost all roads. In the process, Chennai has become an extremely pedestrian unfriendly city. Yet, there is no plan in place to arrest this trend. Instead, the authorities are considering spending huge sums of money to insert more roads to serve an even larger number of vehicles. They also admit, quite unashamedly that, while doing this, they may be further narrowing down the almost non-existent pavements (sidewalks).

However, on the plus side, Chennai has always been known as a very strong cultural centre and it continues to hold this position. It was, until recently, notorious for its giant movie, political, and advertisement hoardings. These were a painful eyesore. But a recent court judgement brought relief and they have all come down. In the immediate aftermath, the city seemed to emerge afresh and it took all of us a while to get our bearings again as old landmarks once again became visible. There are also signs of a new concern for the preservation of buildings of heritage value, and the creation of parks and open spaces for the public.

Strangely, I have drawn hardly any of the buildings or scenes around Chennai, and this is something that I propose to rectify. I suppose that this is largely due to the fact that I have a lot more time to sketch when I am travelling on holiday. I do have one small ink and watercolour of the St. Mary's Church, in Fort St. George, Chennai to share with you. This church was consecrated in 1680, and is the oldest building built by the British in India. At the time of its construction , it was considered bomb-proof because of the way it was built with a foundation capable of absorbing the effects of shelling, four feet thick walls, and a double vaulted, four feet thick, rounded roof capable of withstanding "bombing" with cannon-balls.

There is also a lot of history associated with this building. The marriages of Robert Clive, who was one of the founders of the British Empire in India, and of Elihu Yale, who was associated with the founding of Yale University in USA, were both performed in this church. The records of the church from 1680 to 1819 (and perhaps even more recent records, by now) have been digitized and are used by foreign visitors to check on their ancestry.

You will find more information about this church here.

Fort Kochi Beach Front

One of the very nice things about Fort Kochi is the fact that it is very pedestrian friendly. That is not true of either the city where I live, Chennai...or Ernakulam which is just across the backwaters from Fort Kochi and Mattancherry. During the couple of days that we spent at Fort Kochi we must have walked around fifteen km or so admiring the well preserved old structures, the lush greenery, and the waterfront.

On one of these walks along the waterfront I came across some rain shelters and picnic facilities facing the sea. They were built under a canopy of trees. I found some of the tree trunks very interesting and they are the primary subject of my sketch. The fact that the spot was in the shade, with plenty of convenient seats, and with cool breeze coming off the Arabian Sea made sketching this on location a very pleasant experience.

I spent about an hour on this -- 45 minutes or so at the spot, and around 15 minutes more in the hotel room. While I was drawing I had a few passers by stopping, looking at my drawing, commenting, and engaging me in conversation. Although it slowed me down I rather enjoyed the experience.

The garden

The entry to our room at the Old Harbour Hotel, at Fort Kochi was through a nice courtyard. The room also opened out on to a lovely garden. What was even nicer, from my point of view, was the fact that one of the windows in the room overlooked this garden, and that there was a writing table placed right up against this window.

It is not often that I get a chance to do a location sketch sitting in the comfort of an air-conditioned room, and I did not let this one pass.

We spent the better part of two days at Fort Kochi using the hotel as our base and exploring on foot both Mattanchery and Fort Kochi. Every time we got back to the hotel my wife would put up her feet for a while, and I would rush to the writing table and add a few more lines to my sketch.

Though done in fits and starts, I was happy that I managed to complete it before checking out of the hotel.

Paradesi Synagogue

One of the nice things about Kerala is its long history of religious harmony. Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Jews, as well as people of other faiths have lived together, and continue to do so, as very friendly neighbours.

The earliest synagogue built in Kochi was destroyed around 1500, not by the locals, but by the Portuguese. Subsequently in 1568 under the protection of the Hindu king Raja Ravi Varma, and the Dutch, a new synagogue was built on land gifted to the jewish community by him. This piece of land was right next to the king's Mattanchery Palace. In fact, the synagogue and the Hindu temple attached to the palace share a compound wall.

This synagoue is known by several names. It is called the Paradesi Synagogue, the Cochin Jewish Synagogue, and also as the Mattanchery Synagogue (Mattanchery being the name of a part of Kochi (or Cochin as it was called during the colonial rule of India).

The word "Paradesi" means foreigner in several Indian languages. It was therefore used in the early days to describe this particular synagogue because it was originally used only by the "white" jews. The synagogue is still in use and is closed to the public on Fridays, Saturdays and Jewish holidays.

The synagogue complex consists of 4 structures. My sketch shows the clock tower, which was built in 1760. The synagogue proper is a structure to the left and is barely seen in my sketch. In any case, I have found that most people visualise the clock tower when they try to recall the synagogue.

Old Harbour Hotel, Fort Kochi

From the Kumarakom area my wife and I drove down to Fort Kochi for the next leg of our holiday. I enjoy travelling through Kerala. The landscape is always lush and green, and there is so much to see regardless of which part of Kerala one is in. But this time the drive was not as pleasant as I had hoped it would be. Some major pipe laying project was in progress and the road was in very poor shape for most of the distance.

When I was a teenager, and even into my mid-twenties, I used to visit Fort Kochi at least once or twice a year. Since I used to live only a few miles away across the backwaters, these were day trips. I recall that there were very few hotels in the area and it was difficult in those days to get food to my taste over there. That was not the case a few miles away at Ernakulam. This was about 35 years ago. Since then Fort Kochi has transformed itself into a tourist destination with plenty of hotels and cafes.

We stayed at The Old Harbour Hotel, a small but exquisitely furnished hotel, very close to the waterfront. This building was originally built by the Dutch and used as a warehouse. Later it passed into the hands of the British and was used as a tea auction house and also as a residence. Recently it was bought by an Indian and converted into the present hotel with the help of a Dutch architect. My friend, Mohan Pulimood was involved in the project, and it was he who recommended the hotel to me. I am glad I took his advice.

One final look at Coconut Lagoon

These days many up-market hotels, and most resorts, offer massage & sauna facilities. Coconut Lagoon too has such a facility, but there is a difference. What this resort has is an ayurveda centre with an attending ayurvedic physician. And the massage that they offer is for its healing value tailored to the needs of each individual. Many guests come here specifically for this treatment which can last for weeks. Of course, you can also go in for just one massage. Even then, the physician checks you out and prescribes the type of massage and what you should do before and after to derive the maximum benefit from the massage.

The ayurveda centre, as you can see in my sketch, is also a beautiful, airy structure. The inside is spotlessly clean, and you have a view of the lagoon from every part of the ayurveda centre, including the massage rooms.

The bathrooms at this resort are quite unusual. They are very tastefully designed with modern fittings, fixtures, & tiling, and they all have running hot and cold water. But, they are all open to the sky.

My sketch shows the type of cottage that we stayed in. The entire inside was panelled in wood, and fitted with traditional Kerala style furniture. The portion where you see the coconut tree emerging is where the bathroom is located.

And, even though the cottage was air-conditioned, the verandah that you see in my sketch is where I spent a lot of my time sitting in a comfortable chair, drinking tea, and sketching the sights around me.

A Lazy, Refreshing Holiday

My wife and I lazed, and rejuvenated ourselves at Coconut Lagoon for a couple of days. For those who are interested, the resort does offer several activities. But I was primarily interested only in wandering around, taking in the sights, photographing, and sketching and I did a lot of these. My wife's interests were the ayurveda centre, the curio shop, cooking lessons, and music lessons. Of course, we were also well armed with iPods and enough reading material.

I have always been an admirer of the traditional style of timber construction of Kerala, and it was wonderful to see so many examples of this form of construction, so well preserved, and in such a nice setting.

The cottage that we stayed in had a very comfortable, shaded verandah. I was therefore able to sit and do a detailed sketch of the view outside - a luxury rarely available in a hot, humid, dusty, and crowded land like ours.

During our stay at Coconut Lagoon we discovered that the resort was also hosting a national painting workshop. This was a two week workshop attended by artists from all over India. We were able to go to the venue and watch the artists at work. Most of them were working in acrylic and were quite willing to talk to us about their paintings and the techniques they used.

We also found that Coconut Lagoon had set aside 5 acres for farming. Two crops are raised on these 5 acres - fish and paddy. That's right. For about 6 months of the year the land that has been set aside for farming stays under water and is used to breed fish. At the end of the 6 months, the fish crop is harvested, water is drained, and rice is planted. We were told that the soil is found to be particularly fertile after it is used as a fish farm and that the rice crop is therefore exceptionally good.