Three generations sketching together

My eleven-year old niece Anya is an aspiring artist and always has many colourful and interesting projects to show us each time we visit. For almost a year now, we've been planning and meaning to go out sketching together and it finally happened this Sunday. Along with my parents, this meant we were three generations sketching on location. Pretty cool!

Since the heat is unbearable we chose an indoor air-conditioned spot - House #22 Cafe is a restored old Portuguese style Bungalow near St. Thomas Mount. We started out being the only customers and grabbed a large table in the corner with a great view of the room and the garden outside. We ordered some food but it lay untouched as we all got straight into it. As you can see my mother didn't even bother sitting down!

Before we knew it a couple of hours had flown by. As we wrapped up Anya and I decided to sketch each other quickly. She did a pretty good one of me. Maybe she'll blog it...?

A historical link across two weekends

Over two weekends I visited first St Thomas Mount and then the Santhome Basilica. It was mainly because someone in our sketch-group was kind enough to organise sketching permissions at both these places one after the other. But having gone to each place I started reading up about the connections - and was amazed at the variations in the stories that are available.

First off, the basics. St. Thomas Mount is a small hillock near the Chennai Airport. Legend has it that St Thomas, one of the original apostles of Christ came to Kerala in 52 AD and slowly made his way across to Madras where he was killed in 72 AD on the top of that hillock. His body is said to be interred in a tomb in Mylapore over which is built the Santhome Basilica. This is the most popular legend.

There is a Shrine - Our Lady of Expectation - which is a pilgrimage site on the top of the hillock and a winding stairway up to it. Very picturesque and very hot in the mid-day sun. The stairway has resting points and 14 "stations of the cross" along its side which are statues showing Jesus dragging the cross flocked by a small crowd.

As I was there sketching on a sunday, I experienced the full force of the Sunday Mass. As soon as a sermon in English concluded and the people poured out another wave of them would go in and another sermon would begin in Tamil. Once that was over there was one in Hindi and there was one in a European language as well (Portugese? Latin?)

People who came out would walk back down the stairway in groups singing hymns or some would hang around at the top as there was an excellent view of the airport from here. The children especially were endlessly thrilled to watch flights take off and land.

While the legend of St Thomas is questionable, the location is famous for another event which is completely factual and extremely impressive. Colonel William Lambton began the great trigonometrical survey if India from the top of this hillock in 1802. There is a commemorative bust of the great man at the very spot. I felt humbled thinking about the enormity of the task - few dedicated men  holding chain links and spot levels going all across our huge country and coming up with a highly accurate map.

In comparison,  my visit to Santhome was on a saturday and the Basilica was very quiet and peaceful. No matter what the veracity of St. Thomas's presence in India, the building is beautiful and a pleasure to sketch. Oh, and one last thing - did you know that St Thomas is the patron Saint for Architects?!

Houses of Goa

Towards the end of my week in Goa, I visited this place in the sketch above. Known as Houses of Goa it is a 3 storey museum of ...well.... houses, in Goa. Some of the very wealthy mansions as well as the typical village houses are documented through measure drawings and photographs and presented with a lot of detailed and descriptive writing about the lifestyle. I was also happy to see sketches and paintings of the houses done more recently added in as part of the collection on view.

Apart from plans and models, the collection also includes sign boards, architectural detail elements,  ornamental pieces and all kinds of household articles that are a reminder of a past lifestyle. Goan architecture is heavily portugese influenced and this is evident in the smallest of details.

 I tried to capture some of them, the ones that caught my eye the most. After wandering slowly through the 3 floors I came back out and sketched the building when a tall gentleman passing by on the road came up to me and asked if I wouldn't mind if he watched while I sketch. I said I wouldn't and he stood behind me for some time. It was only as he left and entered his house next door that I realised it was Gerard DaCunha, the architect of the Museum!

Houses of Goa is an island surrounded by road and on one side, Gerard's house faces the museum. On the other is Gerard's office - his architectural practice. The office also houses the official Mario Miranda Gallery. So after the sketching was over that's where I went next. I'm a huge fan of Miranda's work and was so absorbed in studying his sketches that I didnt produce any of my own in the gallery.

The Church of Our Lady of Light

Lets skip a bit back to Madras. After so recently sketching the Sao Sebastian Chapel in Panjim, I suddenly thought to myself that the Luz Church is literally one minute away from my office and I have never visited. So there I headed yesterday morning. It's the oldest surviving church structure in Madras and has 1516 proudly embossed over its main doorway.
Sunday mass was under way so I chose to sketch from outside. Once the mass was over I was soon surrounded by a gang of young girls. They were very eager and enthusiastic to watch me sketch and chattered away non-stop to each other. They spoke in Tamil, which of course, is my mother tongue and I could understand everything they said, including the fact that they assumed I didn't know Tamil.
Here's a few interesting snippets of conversation that I enjoyed: (everything was being said in Tamil)

"Hey, look! She's drawing with her left hand!"
"Yes, see. That is why that tree which is on the left of the church is coming on the right side of her drawing."
" Hey, do you think she will show us the rest of the sketches in her book? I really want to see the rest of the sketches. You ask her. My english is not good."
" No! You ask Her. Pleeeaaase"
Giggling... pause...
"Ok. We'll ask her together. We will all say - (in english and in hushed practice whispers) Excuse me, can you show us your sketchbook"
"Ok fine. At the count of 3 - all together! One, two three!"
Dramatic silent pause.
A giggling collapse.
"Fraud! Cheee! Hey look! Look at her grey hair. She is old! We had better say excuse me aunty!"

Call me mean... but I didn't let on that I knew Tamil just so that they would go on being candid and I could keep listening in!